3.3.1 Blank Backend

[Brian335]

I seem to have jiggered my access to the backend of Joomla! in Version 3.3.1 by making changes to user access permissions.
I know I was making changes yesterday to permissions - unsuccessfully, trying to stop registered users seeing part of the Users menu which was giving rise to 403 errors. This morning on logging in, I am met by an almost blank admin screen. Even if I get in to the site backend, the Save, Save and Close etc buttons are withheld, so I can't make any changes.

I appreciate I have somehow removed my own rights to view backend content and that I can probably somehow adjust this via php/sql. My local site which I hadn't updated shows the following view levels

2014_07_23_13_46_29_.png

whilst my remote site shows

2014_07_23_13_47_58_.png

Could I change the remote table back to the same as the local one through phpMyAdmin or would it be safer to restore a recent backup?

All suggestions gratefully received.

[NathanHawks]

So long as both #__usergroups and #__viewlevels have the same IDs matching the same Titles between the two sites, you could just copy the Rules column values for Registered and Special from your local site.

[Brian335]

Thanks, I will give that a go. I have to be honest and say I don't fully understand the Joomla! security system / levels and so on. Is there a good guide to this for V3 anywhere that you could recommend please?

[NathanHawks]

In my opinion the official tutorial is needlessly complex:
http://docs.joomla.org/J3.x:Access_Cont ... t_Tutorial

At a glance it's simply:
- Users can belong to multiple groups
- Multiple groups can belong to an ACL (aka viewlist/viewlevel)
- A group can belong to multiple ACLs

Any ACLs you create will then be available in the Access dropdown menu for darn near every single thing in Joomla.

And, the built-in system ACLs are:
- Registered: Logged-in users
- Public: Not-logged-in users
- Special: Admins, Managers, Authors

Group hierarchy allows you to create flow-through logic. A child group automatically has all the rights of its parent group (via the "Inherit" setting in any given Permissions options page) but can be given distinct, additional rights. (This trips some people up simply due to wording because you'd think, by name, parents would have more rights and children fewer -- and in fact it can be set up that way (by changing various "Inherit" settings to "Deny" -- but otherwise it makes perfect sense.)

As an applied case say you have a section of your forum only meant to be posted-to by customer service reps who are each assigned to a department based on the type of customer. Suppose you also have supervisors who can give support across all categories.

Your reps would each belong to groups like Buyers, Renters, Leasers. Each of those groups gets its own ACL for this use case, because each defines a specific "kit" of permissions. Each individual forum section would be set only to allow write-access for the appropriate department's reps.

Your supervisors would be of a Supervisor group. The Supervisor group would belong to all three ACLs, thus allowing them write access to all those forums. The Supervisor group would only need its own ACL if there was a place on the site only accessible to them.

[Brian335]

Aha! Now it begins to make sense in a backwards sort of way. Nathan you have been most helpful, thank you very much.
Brian