The Many Flavors of User

I've already mentioned a registered user and other user types without explaining them, and I feel a little guilty about it, so it's time to fess up. PHP-Nuke has four types of user accounts:

• Anonymous user. This is a user who hasn't logged on to your Web site. You don't know who this is.

• Registered user. This is a user who's signed up for an account on your Web site and who has, therefore, created a username and password to identify himself. These users are actually considered anonymous until they log on by entering their username and password into the appropriate location.

• Subscribed user. These folks have actually paid you money to join your Web site. PHP-Nuke doesn't provide any built-in means of actually accepting money; you have to plug that in yourself, and whatever you provide has to update PHP-Nuke's database to mark these users as subscribed.

• Administrator. This is a special type of user who sits apart from other users. Administrator users have a separate username and password, which is required to log on to the administrator portions of your site. Why are administrators special? Because they can administer the site, meaning that they can add, change, and delete content and perform other tasks.

Modules can be restricted to different types of users, and messages can also be targeted to specific user types. Don't worry, I'll show you how to do all of that. For example, Topic 10, "Controlling Access to Modules," sounds like the perfect place to cover module access control!