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We are updating our documentation library to be ready for the Sector 10 release in the second half of 2023! Find out more in our Sector 10 roadmap or head straight to our collection of Sector 10 - Changes and Updates.
The Drupal permissions and user roles management governs user access to both sitebuilding and editorial tasks. The Sector Starter Kit includes preconfigured user roles, user profiles, and permissions that can be used as-is or easily adjusted to support your specific workflow.
Need to get up to speed with workflows?
Start by reading our Introduction to Sector 10 Workflows, along with our Sector Workflow Configuration documentation.
In Drupal, permissions are set per user role and the individual user profiles (e.g. Jon Snow) are assigned to one or more user roles. The roles are integrated with the Sector text format configuration. We have also added a few contribution modules to allow more granular permissions for specific editorial tasks.
Editorial user roles
Our preconfigured user roles are a starting point — your specific site and editorial processes will have specific requirements, and the flexible set-up allows you to make it your own.
Security note for sample user profiles set up in the Starter Kit
The sample user profiles are named based on their roles - Support Agent, Content Editor, and Content Administrator. For security reasons, the user profiles are disabled by default and roles removed. The user profiles are set-up for testing purposes only and should never be active on live/production environments!
The main editorial roles are Content Editor, Content Administrator and Content Moderator. The Content Editor and the Content Moderator roles are part of the editorial workflow, while the Content Administrator has advanced access to text formats, taxonomies, URL redirects etc.
| User roles | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Content Editor | Sector's basic Content Editor role. Access to basic editorial tasks—add and edit new content and media (part of editorial workflow). |
| Content Administrator |
Sector's advanced Content Administrator role - an editorial role with advanced access to authoring tools. |
| Content Moderator | Sector's Content moderator role with publishing rights for the preconfigured workflow. |
Roles in Sector are additive
To create a flexible permission matrix, user roles in Sector are additive. So a user in the system is either a Content Editor, or a Content Editor and a Content Moderator, or a Content Editor and a Content Administrator, or all three.
| Content editor | Content Administrator | Content moderator | Responsibilities | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | x | - | - | Basic editorial task, no publication rights. |
| 2 | x | x | - | Advanced editorial and basic administration task, no publication rights. |
| 3 | x | - | x | Basic editorial task, publication rights. |
| 4 | x | x | x | Advanced editorial and basic administration task, and publication rights. |
Exceptions to the rule(s)
The Sector workflow is optional, so for content types not under workflow, we still need to give editorial access to revisions and deletion of content. To do so, both Content Administrators and Content Moderators are able to delete all content and access all revisions.
Overview of pre-configured user roles and related user profiles
Next to editorial roles, Drupal core provides additional roles - for example, anonymous user and website administrator. The table below lists all user roles and pre-configured user profiles you will find in Sector.
| User profile (name) | User role | Sector 9.x | Sector 10 | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Anonymous user | Role inherited from core, no profile set up | Role inherited from core, no profile set up | Drupal Core user role for public website users. |
| - | Authenticated user | Role inherited from core, no profile set up | Role inherited from core, no profile set up | Drupal Core user role. A catch-all user role for all authenticated (logged-in) users. |
| Content Editor | Content Editor | Custom role, user profile included | Role now inherited from core, user profile included | Sector's basic Content Editor role. |
| Content Administrator | Content Administrator | Custom role, user profile provided for testing. | Custom role, user profile included | Sector's advanced Content Administrator role - an editorial role with advanced access to authoring tools. |
| Content Moderator | Content Moderator | - | Custom role, user profile included | Sector's Content Moderator role with publishing rights for the preconfigured workflow. |
| Administrator / Support Agent | Drupal sitebuilder (site architects and developers only) | Renamed core Administrator role, user profile included | Role Inherited from core, user profile included | The default administrator role in Drupal. Used in Sector as Site Builder and Administrator role with full access to all site building features. Warning: Give to trusted developers and experienced sitebuilders only; this permission has security implications. |
| Robot | - | No specific role required, user profile included | No specific role, user profile included |
Sector's robot user is used for all automated tasks e.g. content imported via feeds. |
Drupal UID1 is not part of the permissions management and is not listed here.
Permissions for Content Editor and Content Administrator
Read more about Understanding permissions for Content Editor and Content Administrator roles.
Additional modules related to user permissions
View unpublished
View unpublished, added to Sector D8 in beta 2, allows specific user roles to view unpublished nodes (draft content) of a specific type, even if the content was added by another user.