Planet Online has an authentication and permissions system which allows a high degree of customisation of access permissions to core application processes.

You can add new users to the system, assign users to groups and change passwords - all using a simple application interface.

While the above features are suitable for most website management requirements, there is, in addition, a more powerful set of controls which can be accessed via the configuration settings, and modified by custom programming extensions as required.

In the standard implementation, users are classed as either "generic" or "admin". Generic users are considered, from the point of view of the system, as "external" to the core administrative roles and are thus excluded from most functions, with the exception of designated 3rd party portals such as the Product Catalogue and the OpenBlog.  Generic users are essentially any end user of your system who chooses to browse through your product catalogue or enter a post using your openBlog portal.

Admin users, by contrast,  are administrators of the system, and have access to all editing features.

These standard settings can be modified via the XML configration file, allowing you to assign a full range of access permission settings (view, edit, modify etc) to designated users.

Using the programming API it is possible to apply even more fine grained permissions settings, such as authorisations for specific database fields.