Decidim::AccessRequests

The gem has been developed by Mainio Tech.

A Decidim module that provides a new verification method that allows system administrators to define new verification workflows where the admins can provide access to specific users.

This module does not itself register any verification workflows because these access request workflows are generally specific to the system in question. For example, if the admins want to provide access only for specific users to add new proposals in a specific participatory space, they can define a new workflow for that.

The access request workflow works as follows:

• User requests access against the registered workflow
• An admin will review the request
• Admin will either approve or reject the access request
• The user will get notified that their access request has been either approved or rejected

Alternatively, the admins can also provide access directly to specific users from the admin panel. This way, the users won't have to create the access requests themselves and they are automatically granted the access once the admin has given it.

Development of this gem has been sponsored by the City of Helsinki.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "decidim-access_requests"

And then execute:

$ bundle

After installation, add this to your verifications initializer:

# config/initializers/decidim_verifications.rb
Decidim::Verifications.register_workflow(:your_requests) do |workflow|
  workflow.engine = Decidim::AccessRequests::Verification::Engine
  workflow.admin_engine = Decidim::AccessRequests::Verification::AdminEngine
  workflow.renewable = true
  workflow.time_between_renewals = 5.minutes
end

And finally, add these lines to your localization files to describe the workflow you just registered:

en:
  decidim:
    authorization_handlers:
      your_requests:
        explanation: An admin will approve or deny access
        name: Your access requests
      admin:
        your_requests:
          help:
            - User requests access against the registered workflow
            - An admin will review the request
            - Admin will either approve or reject the access request
            - The user will get notified that their access request has been either approved or rejected

For enabling the verifcation method:

• Follow the installation instructions above.
• Login to the system management section of Decidim at /system.
• Enable the newly added verification method.

After enabled, you can now send authorization requests for admins:

• Login to Decidim.
• Go to My account > Authorizations.
• Click the newly added authorization ("Your access requests").
• Click "Send request".

After the request is sent, you can now login as admin to approve the request:

• Login to Decidim as an admin user.
• Go to Admin dashboard > Participants > Verifications > Access requests.
• You will see a list of received requests.
• Click the check icon to approve an access request.

After this, you can now control the access to certain functionality using Decidim's permissions (e.g. component permssions). For example, you can limit the creation of new proposals only for approved users.

You are not limited for waiting for the users to send the requests. Another way to grant access is to directly grant it for the users. To do this:

• Login to Decidim as an admin user.
• Go to Admin dashboard > Participants > Verifications > Access requests.
• Click "Granted requests" from the top right corner of the view.
• You will see a list of granted access requests if any are available.
• Click "New" from the top right corner of the view.
• Search the user you want to grant access to.
• Click the check icon in the "Actions" column of the users listing.

After this, the user is directly authorized to access the limited actions.

See Decidim.

To start contributing to this project, first:

• Install the basic dependencies (such as Ruby and PostgreSQL)
• Clone this repository

Decidim's main repository also provides a Docker configuration file if you prefer to use Docker instead of installing the dependencies locally on your machine.

You can create the development app by running the following commands after cloning this project:

$ bundle
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rake development_app

Note that the database user has to have rights to create and drop a database in order to create the dummy test app database.

Then to test how the module works in Decidim, start the development server:

$ cd development_app
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rails s

In case you are using rbenv and have the rbenv-vars plugin installed for it, you can add the environment variables to the root directory of the project in a file named .rbenv-vars. If these are defined for the environment, you can omit defining these in the commands shown above.

Please follow the code styling defined by the different linters that ensure we are all talking with the same language collaborating on the same project. This project is set to follow the same rules that Decidim itself follows.

Rubocop linter is used for the Ruby language.

You can run the code styling checks by running the following commands from the console:

$ bundle exec rubocop

To ease up following the style guide, you should install the plugin to your favorite editor, such as:

• Atom - linter-rubocop
• Sublime Text - Sublime RuboCop
• Visual Studio Code - Rubocop for Visual Studio Code

To run the tests run the following in the gem development path:

$ bundle
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rake test_app
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rspec

Note that the database user has to have rights to create and drop a database in order to create the dummy test app database.

In case you are using rbenv and have the rbenv-vars plugin installed for it, you can add these environment variables to the root directory of the project in a file named .rbenv-vars. In this case, you can omit defining these in the commands shown above.

If you want to generate the code coverage report for the tests, you can use the SIMPLECOV=1 environment variable in the rspec command as follows:

$ SIMPLECOV=1 bundle exec rspec

This will generate a folder named coverage in the project root which contains the code coverage report.

If you would like to see this module in your own language, you can help with its translation at Crowdin:

https://crowdin.com/project/decidim-access-requests

See LICENSE-AGPLv3.txt.