MayI

A plugable access rights API. Meant to make integrations easier. Werry useful as an integration point for blog,forum and CMS components. Also its much nicer to read than the basic stuff i usually do.

Before without MayI.

if user_object.is_admin?

end

Now with MayI.

access.may_add_user! do

end

Basics

You have a class that implements boolean questions.

class MyBasicAccess
  def initialize(data)
    @data = data
  end

  def may_view_secret_stuff(stuff)
    stuff.owner_id ==  data[:session][:user_id]
  end

  def may_create_new_record
    data[:session][:user_type] == "admin"
  end
end

This can then be used with the MayI::Access class.

access = MayI::Access.new(MyBasicAccess)

# Simple boolean
if access.may_create_new_record?
  # You do stuff here
end

# With a block
access.may_create_new_record? do
  # You do stuff here
end

Now with exceptions. On failure the MayI::AccessDeniedError error is raised.

access = MayI::Access.new(MyBasicAccess)

# Simple boolean
if access.may_create_new_record!
  # You do stuff here
end

# With a block
access.may_create_new_record! do
  # You do stuff here
end

With custom error message

access.error_message("Sorry but you are not allowed to do this!").may_create_new_record! do
  # You do stuff here
end

A Rails example

On each request we create a new instance of MyBasicAccess with the current session.

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  before_filter :init_access

  def init_access 
    # Refresh with the relevant data for this request
    ApplicationController.access.refresh({:session => session})
  end

  def self.access
    @@access_cache
  end

  def access
    @@access_cache
  end

  @@access_cache = MayI::Access.new
  @@access_cache.implementation = MyBasicAccess
end

We use the API to check if a user should be able to view some secret stuff.

class SecretStuffController < ApplicationController

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

    end
  end

end

We can also use it in a model.

class ShortUrl < ActiveRecord::Base

  def method_that_requires_special_access
    ApplicationController.access.may_create_new_record! 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.
Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.

MayI

Basics

A Rails example

Contributing to MayI

Copyright