Check user is in User Group / Custom User Permissions I'm trying to restrict access to items in a channel using some form of custom user permissions however I don't appear to be able to create or set custom read permissions for a channel using crafts permissions as they currently are, I'm therefore trying to do something using either user groups or custom fields on the user and validate if a user has access that way. 

I'm hoping this is along the right lines, although it doesn't seem ideal, so is it possible to check if a user is in a certain user group elegantly using twig?

I can do {{ if currentUser.admin }} and I'm guessing I could therefore do something like {{if 'groupnamewithaccess' in currentUser.groups }}
I believe what you're looking for is 'isInGroup'

{% if currentUser.isInGroup('groupHandle') %}


It will also accept an actual group object or a group ID as well.

There is also getGroups:

{{ currentUser.getGroups() }}


Will return an array of UserGroupModels all of the groups the user belongs to.

And finally, can:

{{ currentUser.can('permissionName') }}


Will check if the current user has the given permissions, whether that was indirectly assigned to them in a group, or directly assigned to them as a user.