Best practice for clients editing site

Hi everyone,

I've been giving this a lot of thought as I want to find a standard way of doing this to avoid making loads of changes in the future. I wondered what the rest of you do in the way of navigation to allow site admins/clients to edit their website.

I compiled a few ideas as so:

1) Let them use administration toolbar but with limited privileges once logged in (depending on role)
2) Add a navigation block into a sitewide region with links such as 'add content', 'view users' - depending on permissions/role
3) A new menu item that only appears when logged in (depending on permissions/role) - this would link to a whole new delta template with features like the standard 'add content' but also stuff like 'whos online' i.e. one page that does everything

Option 1 and 2 would allow users to do admin stuff from anywhere on the site. Option 3 would mean they would always have to return to that page for admin duties. Option 2 however means that you have to find somewhere on your page to stick a new menu. As an admin myself, I have 100% access so just use the admin toolbar no probs but it's quite tricky when considering all the different people that might be logged in at any one time and to find a decent way for them to easily edit/arrange content. I'm not talking about rearranging blocks or anything or layout stuff, just editing content/users/comments.

Option 1 also has the problem of a bunch of unauthorised menu options still populating the lists. Allowing 'Use the administration pages and help' permission (for 'content' link to show up in the admin toolbar - they have permissions for this) means 'structure', 'configuration' etc. all show up too, which they do not have permission for, and of course the links then go to an access denied page.

Any additions or how other people handle this situation would be most welcome :)

Thanks,

Sam.