ACL Checker

This is a NodeJS module that allows you to setup roles/resources/permissions and then allows you to check to see if a role has a particular permission for a resource.

Installation

You can install this using npm:

npm install acl-checker

Quick Guide

First thing you need to do is create a instance of the ACL class:

var AclChecker = require('acl-checker');
var acl = new AclChecker();

Setup Allowable Permissions

Next you have to load roles/resources/permissions. You can do this a few different way, all which use the allow() method.

Strings

You can use simple strings where you pass the role, resource, and then permissions:

acl.allow('guest', 'post', 'read');

This will give the guest roles the read permission on the post resources.

Arrays

Same parameters as strings but using arrays. It will give all the permissions to all the resources, for all the roles, for example:

acl.allow([
  'blogger',
  'admin'
], [
  'post',
  'comment'
], [
  'create',
  'read'
]);

This will give the blogger and admin roles the create and read permissions for both the post and comment resources.

You can also mix and match strings and arrays:

acl.allow([
  'blogger',
  'admin'
], 'post', [
  'create',
  'read'
]);

Object

You can also use an object with allow(). The object would be structure like:

roleName:
  resourceName:
    [permissions]

Defining however many you want, for example:

var permissions = {
  guest: {
    post: [
      'read'
    ],
    comment: [
      'create',
      'read'
    ]
  },
  blogger: {
    post: [
      'create',
      'read',
      'update',
      'delete'
    ],
    comment: [
      'create',
      'read',
      'approve'
    ]
  },
  admin: {
    post: [
      'create',
      'read',
      'update',
      'delete'
    ],
    comment: [
      'create',
      'read',
      'update',
      'delete',
      'approve'
    ]
  }
};
 
acl.allow(permissions);

Where Does The Data Come From?

This library is designed very specifically to handle the task of validating permissions on roles and resources, it does nothing with get or retrieving that data.

It is up to your application to prodive the data where it uses low level libraries like node-mysql or node_redis or using an Object Mapper like Simple ORM, Bookshelf, or Mongoose or a combination. You have full control in how the ACL data is retrieve and stored.

Removing Permissions

To remove permission, use the removeAllow() method which has the same structure as the allow() method.

acl.removeAllow('guest', 'post', 'read');
 
acl.removeAllow('guest', [
  'post',
  'comment'
], 'read');
 
acl.removeAllow({
  guest: {
    post: [
      'read'
    ]
  }
});

Checking Permission

To check if a permission is valid, use the either isAllowed() or allIsAllowed() method which has the same structure as the allow() method.

isAllowed() requires just one of the permission to be valid while isAllAllowed() requires all permissions to be valid.

acl.isAllowed('guest', 'post', 'read');
 
acl.isAllowed('guest', [
  'post',
  'comment'
], 'read');
 
acl.allIsAllowed({
  guest: {
    post: [
      'read'
    ]
  }
});

LICENSE

MIT