Lock down/Secure specific sub section in Structure

Question

I have a client's website where they're using Structure addon to hierarchically author content. They now have a need to lock down a particular sub-section of content (could be third level deep). I don't really want to create a set of new templates just for this section, so using the Template Manager to lock down templates to specific user groups is out of the question.

Is there another method by which I can lock down/secure a sub section down to one or more member groups?

Regards Brendan

UPDATE: The scope has changed slightly now. This section of the site now needs to be accessible by one of more working groups, but the content they see will be member group specific. May need to consider breaking this out to a specific template group and sub templates instead.

Answer 1

You could probably create a custom field to specify if it's locked or not, and then do a conditional redirect in the template if it's locked and the member isn't assigned to the proper group. It's a bit dirty, but it should work.

Answer 2

If you simply need to lock an area down for all but certain member groups then a simple conditional to check the logged in member's group should suffice.

{if member_group=="1|3|4"} <-- grant access to anyone in groups 1, 3 or 4
     Display the content
{if:else}
     Show a message indicating they don't have access...or issue a redirect
{/if}