Overview

For site owners, controlling access to sensitive content is important for security and compliance. Organizations often need to prevent access to specific web pages, articles, and media files for certain users/groups. This use case explains how miniOrange tackled the challenge of restricting pages and media files in Joomla using Single Sign-On (SSO).

Prerequisites

This use case has been seamlessly implemented using the plugins listed below. To achieve this, you will need to install these plugins on your Joomla instance.

miniOrange SAML SP Plugin

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miniOrange Page and Article Restriction Plugin

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miniOrange Media Restriction Plugin

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The Challenge

The objective is to grant users access to specific pages, articles, and media files after they complete/log in using Single Sign-On. These resources will remain hidden and inaccessible under normal circumstances. Access to particular pages and files will be determined by the user's assigned roles or groups.

Our Solution

• The development team created two new extensions to take on this challenge. The first extension is a media restriction plugin, which limits access to Joomla files, including images, audio, videos, documents, PDFs, and HTML files. This plugin allows our clients to choose which roles or groups have access to specific Joomla files. The second extension is a page restriction plugin, which limits access to Joomla pages so that only users with assigned access can visit those pages.

• When a user attempts to access a file or a Joomla page, they are redirected to the Joomla login page or a Single Sign-On (SSO) URL, where they can log in using their Identity Provider (IDP) credentials. If the user has been granted direct access or belongs to a group with permission to access the specific file or page, they will be allowed entry. Otherwise, they will encounter a 403 error or be redirected to a custom URL set by the site owner.

Result

• miniOrange successfully created and implemented two new Joomla extensions, allowing our clients to securely restrict access to their Joomla files, directories, and pages based on user roles/groups and other custom requirements.

Additional Resources

1. Joomla Single Sign-On
2. Page & Article Restriction
3. Use Cases for Joomla