TheRole - Authorization Gem for Ruby on Rails with administrative interface.

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Semantic, Flexible, Lightweight

INTRO

Bye bye CanCan, I got The Role!

Description

TheRole is an authorization library for Ruby on Rails which restricts what resources a given user is allowed to access. All permissions are defined in with 2-level-hash, and store in database with JSON. TheRole - Semantic, lightweight role system with an administrative interface. Role is a two-level hash, consisting of the sections and nested rules. Section may be associated with controller name. Rule may be associated with action name. Section can have many rules. Rule can have true or false value Sections and nested Rules provide ACL (Access Control List) Role stored in the database as JSON string. Using of hashes, makes role system extremely easy to configure and use.

GUI

TheRole management web interface => localhost:3000/admin/roles

puts following yields into your layout:

= yield :role_sidebar
= yield :role_main

Rails 4 version

gem 'the_role', '~> 2.0.0'

Rails 3 version (not recommended for use)

Instalation

• INSTALL
• INTEGRATION
• Assets and Bootstrap
• Configuration (optional)

Understanding

• TheRole instead CanCan?
• What does it mean semantic?
• Virtual sections and rules
• Using with Views
• Who is Administrator?
• Who is Moderator?
• Who is Owner?

API

• User
• Role

Install

# Optional for UI.
# You can use any Bootstrap version (CSS, LESS, SCSS)
# You can find required components below
gem 'bootstrap-sass', '~> 2.3.1.0'

gem "the_role", "~> 2.0.0"

bundle

install note

bundle exec rails g the_role --help

Change User migration

Add role_id:integer field to your User Model

def self.up
  create_table :users do |t|
    t.string :login
    t.string :email
    t.string :crypted_password
    t.string :salt

    # TheRole field
    t.integer :role_id

    t.timestamps
  end
end

Change User model

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include TheRoleUserModel

  # has_many :pages
end

Create Role model

Generate Role model

bundle exec rails g the_role install

install TheRole migrations

rake the_role_engine:install:migrations

Invoke migration

rake db:migrate

Create Admin

Create admin role

bundle exec rails g the_role admin

Makes any user as Admin

User.first.update( role: Role.with_name(:admin) )

Integration

Change your ApplicationController

include TheRoleController in your Application controller

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include TheRoleController

  protect_from_forgery

  # your Access Denied processor
  def access_denied
    return render(text: 'access_denied: requires a role')
  end

  # 1) LOGIN_REQUIRE => authenticate_user!    for Devise
  # 2) LOGIN_REQUIRE => require_login         for Sorcery
  # 3) LOGIN_REQUIRE => user_require_method   for other Authentication solution

  # Define method aliases for the correct TheRole's controller work
  alias_method :login_required,     :LOGIN_REQUIRE
  alias_method :role_access_denied, :access_denied
end

Using with any controller

class PagesController < ApplicationController
  before_action :login_required, except: [:index, :show]
  before_action :role_required,  except: [:index, :show]

  before_action :set_page,       only: [:edit, :update, :destroy]
  before_action :owner_required, only: [:edit, :update, :destroy]

  def edit
     # ONLY OWNER CAN EDIT THIS PAGE
  end

  private

  def set_page
    @page = Page.find params[:id]

    # TheRole: You should define OWNER CHECK OBJECT
    # When editable object was found
    # You should define @owner_check_object before invoking **owner_required** method
    @owner_check_object = @page
  end
end

Assets and Bootstrap

application.css

//= require the_role/bootstrap_sass
//= require the_role

If you don't use bootstrap-sass gem you should add the following componetns from your bootstrap version instead the_role/bootstrap_sass:

bootstrap/variables
bootstrap/mixins
bootstrap/reset

bootstrap/scaffolding
bootstrap/grid
bootstrap/layouts

bootstrap/navs
bootstrap/wells
bootstrap/forms
bootstrap/close
bootstrap/tables
bootstrap/navbar
bootstrap/dropdowns

bootstrap/alerts
bootstrap/buttons
bootstrap/button-groups

Configuration

config/initializers/the_role.rb

TheRole.configure do |config|
  config.layout            = :application # default Layout for TheRole UI
  config.default_user_role = nil          # set default role (name)
end

Understanding

TheRole instead of CanCan?

TheRole in contrast to CanCan has simple and predefined way to find access state of current role. If you don't want to create your own role scheme with CanCan Abilities - TheRole can be a great solution for your.

You can manage roles with simple UI. TheRole's ACL structure is inspired by Rails controllers, that is why it's so great for Rails application.

What does it mean semantic?

Semantic - the science of meaning. Human should be able to understand fast what is happening in a role system.

Look at the next Role hash. If you can understand access rules - this authorization system is semantic.

role = {
  'pages' => {
    'index'   => true,
    'show'    => true,
    'new'     => false,
    'edit'    => false,
    'update'  => false,
    'destroy' => false
  },
  'articles' => {
    'index'  => true,
    'show'   => true
  },
  'twitter'  => {
    'button' => true,
    'follow' => false
  }
}

Virtual sections and rules

Usually, we use real names of controllers and actions for names of sections and rules:

@user.has_role?(:pages, :show)

But, also, you can use virtual names of sections, and virtual names of section's rules.

@user.has_role?(:twitter, :button)
@user.has_role?(:facebook, :like)

And you can use them as well as other access rules.

Using with Views

<% if @user.has_role?(:twitter, :button) %>
  Twitter Button is Here
<% else %>
  Nothing here :(
<% end %>

Who is Administrator?

Administrator is the user who can access any section and the rules of your application.

Administrator is the owner of any objects in your application.

Administrator is the user, which has virtual section system and rule administrator in the role-hash.

admin_role_fragment = {
  :system => {
    :administrator => true
  }
}

Who is Moderator?

Moderator is the user, which has access to any actions of some section(s).

Moderator is the owner of any objects of some class.

Moderator is the user, which has a virtual section moderator, with section name as rule name.

There is Moderator of Pages (controller) and Twitter (virtual section)

moderator_role_fragment = {
  :moderator => {
    :pages   => true,
    :blogs   => false,
    :twitter => true
  }
}

Who is Owner?

Administrator is owner of any object in system.

Moderator of pages is owner of any page.

User is owner of object, when Object#user_id == User#id.

API

User

# User's role
@user.role # => Role obj

Is it Administrator?

@user.admin?                       => true | false

Is it Moderator?

@user.moderator?(:pages)           => true | false
@user.moderator?(:blogs)           => true | false
@user.moderator?(:articles)        => true | false

Has user got an access to rule of section (action of controller)?

@user.has_role?(:pages,    :show)  => true | false
@user.has_role?(:blogs,    :new)   => true | false
@user.has_role?(:articles, :edit)  => true | false

Is user Owner of object?

@user.owner?(@page)                => true | false
@user.owner?(@blog)                => true | false
@user.owner?(@article)             => true | false

Role

# Find a Role by name
@role = Role.with_name(:user)

@role.has?(:pages, :show)       => true | false
@role.moderator?(:pages)        => true | false
@role.admin?                    => true | false

CREATE

# Create a section of rules
@role.create_section(:pages)

# Create rule in section (false value by default)
@role.create_rule(:pages, :index)

READ

@role.to_hash => Hash

# JSON string
@role.to_json => String

# check method
@role.has_section?(:pages) => true | false

UPDATE

# set this rule on
@role.rule_on(:pages, :index)

# set this rule off
@role.rule_off(:pages, :index)

# Incoming hash is true-mask-hash
# All the rules of the Role will be reseted to false
# Only rules from true-mask-hash will be set true
new_role_hash = {
  :pages => {
    :index => true,
    :show => true
  }
}

@role.update_role(new_role_hash)

DELETE

# delete a section
@role.delete_section(:pages)

# delete a rule in section
@role.delete_rule(:pages, :show)

Changelog

• 2.0.3 - create role fix, cleanup
• 2.0.2 - code cleanup, readme
• 2.0.1 - code cleanup
• 2.0.0 - Rails 4 ready, configurable, tests
• 1.7.0 - mass assignment for User#role_id, doc, locales, changes in test app
• 1.6.9 - assets precompile addon
• 1.6.8 - doc, re dependencies
• 1.6.7 - Es locale (beta 0.2)
• 1.6.6 - Ru locale, localization (beta 0.1)
• 1.6.5 - has_section?, fixes, tests (alpha 0.3)
• 1.6.4 - En locale (alpha 0.2)
• 1.6.3 - notifications
• 1.6.0 - stabile release (alpha 0.1)

i18n

Ru, En (by me)

Es by @igmarin

zh_CN by @doabit & @linjunpop

MIT-LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2012 [Ilya N.Zykin]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.