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Consent

With the Global Data Protection Regulation and other data privacy regulations being put in place across the globe, you have various requirements as web developers that you didn't use to. The Consent module helps you manage collecting consent from the user before storing any cookies through an opt-in system for all non-required cookies. It provides the mechanism for displaying the consent form, and recording the user's preferences. A helper method, has_consent, is provided so that you can easily meet the consent requirements when building your site.

Using the Helper

The helper is loaded automatically by the BaseController. As long as you extend the BaseController (or one of its children, like the AuthController) then you do not need to explicitly load the helper.

The helper can be used both within the views and the controllers to limit which services are called (like ad-tracking or analytics) and which cookies you set.

Within a view you might wrap Google Analytics tag withn a check against the performing consent: 

<?php if (has_consent('performing')) : ?>
<script>
    <!-- Global Site Tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
    ... (several lines of code) ...
</script>
<?php endif ?>

Configuration

All settings are available in the Config\Consent class, or in the admin settings area.

$requireConsent

This determines whether the consent system is enabled or not. If true, the consent form will be automatically inserted into all front-end views by the Consent controller filter. If false, the consent system will not display and the helper will always return true. The default value is false;

$consentLength

The number of days before a visitor is asked for their consent again. The default value is 180 days (6 months).

$consentForm

The view that is displayed to site visitors that a) asks for their basic consent and b) allows them to accept/reject the various consents. The required consent is unable to be rejected and contains things like the Auth cookie that determines if you're logged in or not.

$consentFormStyles $consentFormScripts

The views that will be loaded that contain the CSS and Javascript, respectively. The contents of these views will be inserted into each page upon page load.

$policyUrl

A URL (either full or relative) that points to the page that details the cookie policy. On many sites this will be included in the Privacy Policy or Terms of Service pages, or similar.

$consents

This is an array of the initial consents that will be asked for in the Consent Form. Each array item includes the alias the consent can be checked with, and the following items:

  • name: The name as it is displayed to the visitors.
  • desc: The description of the consent that describes the purpose of the cookies/services and what might be no longer functional if the consent is rejected.