SimpleAccessControl
===================

Acknowledgements: I give all credit to Ezra and Technoweenie for their two plugins which
inspired the interface design and a lot of the code for this one.

SimpleAccessControl is a streamlined, intuitive authorisation system. It derives heavily from
acl_system2 and has made clear some problems which plagued the author when first using it. Some
fixes to acl_system2's design:

      * a normal Rails syntax:
            access_rule 'admin', :only => :index
           access_rule '(moderator || admin)', :only => :new
      * error handling for helper methods (permit? bombs out with current_user == nil)
      * one-line parser, easy to replace or alter
      * proper before_filter usage, meaning access rules are parsed only when needed
      * no overrideable default (which I found counter-intuitive in the end)

Also, it has two methods, access_control and permit?, for those moving from acl_system2.

But, let me stress, everyone likes a slightly different system, so this one may not be
your style. I find it synchronises very well with the interface of Acts as Authenticated (even
though I have modified it so much that it's now called Authenticated Cookie).

INSTALLATION
============

Create the following migration:

  create_table "roles", :force => true do |t|
    t.column "title", :string
  end
  create_table "roles_users", :id => false, :force => true do |t|
    t.column "role_id", :integer
    t.column "user_id", :integer
  end

Be sure to have a current_user method which returns the user object.

USAGE
=====

The plugin is automatically hooked into ActionController::Base. To use the plugin, you may
optionally set up these two callbacks somewhere in or mixed into your ApplicationController:

  def permission_granted
  end
  def permission_denied
  end

In your controllers, add access rules like so:

  access_rule 'admin', :only => :destroy
  access_rule 'user || admin', :only => [:new, :create, :edit, :update]

Note the use of Ruby-style operators. These strings are real conditionals and should be treated as
such. Every grouping of non-operator characters will be considered a role title.

In your views, you can use the following:

  <% restrict_to 'admin || moderator' do %>
    <%= link_to "Admin Area", admin_area_url %>
  <% end %>
  
AND

  <%= link_to("Admin Area", admin_area_url) if has_permission?('admin || moderator') %>

There are also transitional methods which help you move from acl_system2 to this plugin -- I do this
not to denegrate acl_system2 but because I did this for myself and decided to include it. The two
systems are rather similar.


VARIATION BY MABS29