Easy Permissions

This module provides a reusable system for managing roles and permissions within a TypeScript application. It is designed to integrate easily with existing user management systems, allowing you to manage permissions without needing to directly manage users.

Heads Up

This is a very simple package targeted at small projects. If you want something more robust that can directly integrate with larger apps and databases, you should consider looking at something like casl.

If you need something quick and easy to setup, then ez-perms can do the trick.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Getting Started
  • Defining Permissions
  • Managing Roles
  • Checking Permissions
• Usage Examples
  • Registering Permissions
  • Assigning Roles
  • Checking User Permissions
• API Reference

Overview

This module allows you to manage user permissions and roles using a pattern like action:resource:optional_resource_scope. This format allows you to specify permissions at various levels of granularity, from broad actions on all resources to specific actions on individual resources.

Key Concepts

• Permission: Defines an action on a resource, optionally scoped to a specific instance.
• Role: A collection of permissions that can be assigned to a user.
• PermissionMapper: Registers permissions using strings or objects.
• RoleManager: Manages roles and checks permissions.

Getting Started

Defining Permissions

Permissions are defined using a pattern of action:resource:optional_resource_scope. This allows you to specify exactly what a user is allowed to do.

// Example Permission strings
const permissions = [
	"edit:documents:*", // Edit any document
	"view:documents", // View any document
	"delete:users", // Delete any user
];

Managing Roles

Roles are collections of permissions. You can define roles and assign permissions to them.

const adminRole = { id: "admin", name: "Admin", permissions: [] };
const userRole = { id: "user", name: "User", permissions: ["view:documents"] };

// Create roles using RoleManager
roleManager.createRole(adminRole);
roleManager.createRole(userRole);

// Or create multiple roles directly
roleManager.createRoles([adminRole, userRole]);

Checking Permissions

To check if a user has a particular permission, pass the user's roles and permissions to the RoleManager's hasPermission method.

const canEditDocument = roleManager.hasPermission(user, "edit:documents:1234");

Usage Examples

Registering Permissions

You can register permissions using either strings or objects:

import { permissionMapper } from "path_to_permissions_module";

const permissions = [
	"edit:documents:*", // String-based definition
	{ id: "view:documents", action: "view", resource: "documents" }, // Object-based definition
];

// Register permissions
permissionMapper.registerPermissions(permissions);

Assigning Roles

Roles can be created and managed using the RoleManager:

import { roleManager } from "path_to_permissions_module";

const adminRole = { id: "admin", name: "Admin", permissions: [] };
const editorRole = { id: "editor", name: "Editor", permissions: [] };

// Create roles
roleManager.createRole(adminRole);
roleManager.createRole(editorRole);

// Assign permissions to roles
roleManager.assignPermissionToRole("admin", "edit:documents:*");
roleManager.assignPermissionToRole("editor", "view:documents");

Checking User Permissions

To check if a user has a specific permission, use the hasPermission method:

const user = {
	roles: ["editor"],
	permissions: ["edit:documents:1234"], // Direct permission to edit a specific document
};

// Check if the user can edit a specific document
const canEditDocument = roleManager.hasPermission(user, "edit:documents:1234"); // true

// Check if the user can view any document
const canViewDocuments = roleManager.hasPermission(user, "view:documents"); // true (if we consider the Assigning Roles section and the user has the 'editor' role)

API Reference

PermissionMapper

• registerPermissions(permissionData: (Permission | string)[])
  • Registers a list of permissions, which can be either objects or formatted strings.

RoleManager

• createRole(role: Role)
  • Creates a new role with a unique identifier.
• assignPermissionToRole(roleId: string, permission: Permission)
  • Assigns a specific permission to a role.
• hasPermission(user: { roles: (Role | string)[], permissions: (Permission | string)[] }, permissionToCheck: string | Permission): boolean
  • Checks if the given user object has the specified permission.

License

This project uses the MIT license.