[commits] [Wiki] created: Doc/Dev/PermsPackageH3

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Created page: https://wiki.horde.org/Doc/Dev/PermsPackageH3

+Horde 3 Permissions Framework

This is strictly for Horde 3. For Horde 4 and 5, go to Doc/Dev/PermsPackage

There are three aspects to the permissions framework.  The first is to  
tell Horde what permissions your application has.  Horde uses a  
unified tree structure to track all permissions, with each application  
having a branch off the root.  In your application, you must create a  
list of permissions that Horde will then merge with other applications.

Next, an administrator needs to be able to assign or revoke  
privileges.  This part is completely abstracted and there isn't much  
to say for developers.  Horde itself has a UI for administering  
permissions, but it's just a front-end to the permissions API.   
Therefore, your application can choose to manage permissions in its  
own UI or business logic, but it doesn't strictly need to (and  
probably shouldn't).

The most important part is to enforce them.  As a developer, you need  
to add code into your business logic to check permissions before doing  
something protected.  None of the framework is useful without this step.

++Defining Available Permissions
To allow Horde to manage your permissions, it needs to know what they  
are.  This is where the design stage comes in.  Internally, Horde  
identifies permissions via a tree.

Each application defines its portion of the tree.  Whenever the Horde  
API is invoked, it needs to resolve a permission name, so it calls a  
function called _app_perms() within each application (if it exists)  
and merges its results.
In this example we'll add the permission "arbitrary_permission" to  
application foo.

In foo/lib/api.php:

<code type="php">
$_services['perms'] = array(
     'args' => array(),
     'type' => '{urn:horde}stringArray'
);

function _foo_perms()
{
     static $perms = array();
     if (!empty($perms)) {
         return $perms;
    }

    $perms['tree']['foo']['arbitrary_permission'] = false;
    $perms['title']['foo:arbitrary_permission'] = _("Textual description");
    $perms['type']['foo:arbitrary_permission'] = 'boolean';
    /* example of a sub permission of arbitrary_permission, this time  
a number value */
     
$perms['tree']['foo']['arbitrary_permission']['some_count_permission']  
= false;
    $perms['title']['foo:arbitrary_permission:some_count_permission']  
= _("Textual description");
    $perms['type']['foo:arbitrary_permission:some_count_permission'] = 'int';

    return $perms;
}
</code>

Now you can go to the Horde administration workflow and click on  
'Permissions'.  On this page, you will be able to see the permissions  
tree.  Add a child node for your 'foo' application.  Then when you add  
a child to the 'foo' application, you will see your new permission in  
the list of permissions (the only item in this list in this example).

This example is obviously very simplistic.  The flexibility comes in  
when populating the above list dynamically from persistent storage.   
For example, if your application manages widgets, you can make a  
database call in _foo_perms()  and loop over your result set.

<code type="php">
while(($row = ($resultSet->next()) !== null) {
     $widgetId = $row['widgetId'];
     $widgetName = $row['widgetName'];

     $perms['tree']['foo'][$widgetId] = false;
     $perms['title']["foo:$widgetId"] = $widgetName
}
</code>

Using this strategy, one can create ACL's that apply to a specific  
object, rather than static permissions, like "create widgets".   
Permissions can even be nested.  One can create a static permission  
called "widgets" whose permission mappings represent what a given user  
can do to ALL widgets, then dynamically add children permissions for  
specific widgets.

Notice the use of $perms['type'].  There are two types of permissions,  
which determine the levels of that permission a user may have.  In the  
first example, type Boolean, the user either has the permission, or  
they don't.  The second type (default if not specified) is 'matrix',  
which allows for various levels, specifically, SHOW, READ, EDIT, and  
DELETE.  A user may have any of these levels assigned, or none.

++Applying Permissions / Persistent Storage

This part of the process is completely abstracted and your application  
shouldn't deal with it.  However, it is obviously important to  
understand.  Horde exposes its API via two classes: Perms and  
Horde_Permission.
Perms contains the actions one performs, such as adding or removing  
permissions.  Horde_Permission is an entity class that represents a  
permission.  The PhpDocumentor documentation at  
http://dev.horde.org/api/framework/ (choose the Horde_Perms package)  
covers these classes fairly well.
Note that the Permissions class is a singleton.  The instance is  
usually already defined in a global variable $GLOBALS['perms'].  It's  
also possible to access the static singleton method like so:
<code type="php">
$perms = &Perms::singleton();
</code>

To add a new permission (assuming it's already defined) into  
persistent storage, use Perms::newPermission(), which gives you back a  
Horde_Permission object that you can then populate with users and  
permission assignments.  Calling Perms::addPermission() with that same  
object will push it into persistent storage so that the specified  
users will have the permission.

<code type="php">
global $perms;
$p = $perms->newPermission('foo:arbitrary_permission');
$p->addUserPermission('someUser', PERMS_SHOW | PERMS_READ | PERMS_EDIT  
| PERMS_DELETE);
$perms->addPermission($p);
</code>

++Using / Enforcing Permissions

None of this code matters if your application doesn't actually check  
these permissions.  This is best done in your business logic and NOT  
at the user interface level.  To check if a user has a given  
permission, simply call Perms::hasPermission() through the singleton  
object.  For example:

<code type="php">
public function myBusinessMethod($widgetId)
{
     if(!$GLOBALS['perms']->hasPermission("foo:$widgetId",  
Auth::getAuth(), PERMS_EDIT))
             throw new Exception(_("Access denied."));

     // your business code

}
</code>