[eluser]Rick Jolly[/eluser]
CI doesn't have an Authorization/ACL system, but if you are looking for a good one, you might want to check out the zend framework ACL. Using it with CI is straightforward - just remember to add it to your include path, then require() or include() it.
There are a few things that CI offers that could help simplify your code when using a complicated authorization system:
1) Break your views up into fragments.
What I mean is this: Every part of a view that requires authorization in order to see it or use it could be a seperate view fragment. That view fragment could be loaded by a library that examines the current user's role and decides whether or not to return the fragment for inclusion. An example might be a sidebar view fragement with links only meant for the "admin" role.
2) Use inheritance.
For example, if you have a back-end admin section with several controllers, you could extend an "admin" parent controller that validates the current user within its constructor. No need to do authorization checks everywhere.
