MayI

A nice explicit API for activity based authorization. Having the authorization question clearly writen out.

In short

Role based authorization

if user_object.is_admin?
  ...
end

Activity based authorization

access.may_add_user! do
  ...
end

As you can see with MayI this changes to a nice method call with an explicit mening. I have found this small API to be a big win! Now we have the actually question we want answered documented.

The API

A basic access rights implementation.

class MyAccessHandler

  include MayI
  
  def initialize(user)
    @user = user
  end
  
  def may_view_secret_stuff(stuff)
    stuff.owner_id ==  @user.id
  end
  
  def may_create_new_record
    @user.type == "admin"
  end
end

This is how you would use it.

access = MyAccessHandler.new(user)

# Simple boolean
if access.may_create_new_record?
  ...
end

# With a block
access.may_create_new_record? do
  ...
end

# With erros
access.may_view_secret_stuff!(stuff)
access.may_view_secret_stuff!(stuff) do
  ...
end

# With custom error message
access.error_message("A custom error message").may_view_secret_stuff!(stuff)

With Rails

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base

  helper_method :current_user
  def current_user 
    ...
  end
  
  helper_method :access
  def access
    @@access_cache ||= MyAccessHandler.new(current_user)
  end
  
end

class StuffController < ApplicationController

  def show
    stuff = Stuff.find(params[:id])
    
    access.may_view_secret_stuff?(stuff) do
      ...
    end
  end
  
end

Contributing to MayI

Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet.
Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it.
Fork the project.
Start a feature/bugfix branch.
Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution.
Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.

mayi

Development

MayI

In short

The API

With Rails

Contributing to MayI

Copyright