[Need advice for newbie] How to define structure of applications in case I have multiple user roles

Rails
1

Hi,

I am really newbie in RoR, I am just reading this
bookhttp://pragprog.com/book/rails2/agile-web-development-with-rails.
I am trying to make very simple application who should have 3 user roles
(3
groups of many users). Each role should have different permission set
(of
course i have to implement some authentication mechanism first).

*Administrators *- Should have access to all data (create, edit,
update,
delete).
*Editors *- Should have access to all data which they created (create,
edit, update, delete).
*Viewers *- Should have read access to all data anyone created.

I just scaffold-ed basic structure of application, did some changes,
defined relations between models … Scaffold views and controllers have
all actions for all data (Show, edit, update, delete). My question is:

  1. Should I move somewhere to dedicated place (like /admin) these
    scaffold-ed files and “lock” them only for administrators? Create
    different
    set of controllers and views for Editors and different set of
    controllers
    and views Viewers? Is this even possible?
  2. Should I use existing scaffold-ed controllers and views and make
    application logic inside (filtering out displaying Edit link is not
    good
    idea, users always can “gues” the correct edit URL even I do not show
    button for edit)?
  3. Is there best practice for such common situation?

thanx a lot for your opinions

Pavel K.

2

On Saturday, January 25, 2014 9:03:09 PM UTC, Pavel Krejsa wrote:

I just scaffold-ed basic structure of application, did some changes, defined
relations between models … Scaffold views and controllers have all actions for
all data (Show, edit, update, delete). My question is:
Should I move somewhere to dedicated place (like /admin) these scaffold-ed files
and “lock” them only for administrators? Create different set of controllers and
views for Editors and different set of controllers and views Viewers? Is this even
possible?
Should I use existing scaffold-ed controllers and views and make application
logic inside (filtering out displaying Edit link is not good idea, users always
can “gues” the correct edit URL even I do not show button for edit)?Is there best
practice for such common situation?
thanx a lot for your opinions

The cancan gem is pretty good at this. You create an ability file where
you list what a user can do. At its most basic it would be

class Ability
include CanCan::Ability
def initialize(user)
if user.admin?
can :manage, :all
elsif user.editor?
can :manage, Post, :user_id => user.id
end
can read, :all
end
end

(You’d have to repeat the Post bit for other classes)

Then cancan gives you view helpers, for example you could do

<%= if can? :edit, @post %>

display link to edit here

<% end %>

Last but not least your controllers need to also check that the user is
authorized. Cancan provides a default before_filter you can use if
you’re just using the standard restful actions.

The cancan wiki has loads of examples.

With the above, authorization isn’t a reason for splitting up your
controllers. However you might still consider splitting your editing
interface from the one for the general public - perhaps they will want
to see different information, that goes beyond an edit link here and an
delete link there. For example perhaps editors would find a concise,
table based list of posts useful, whereas users want something prettier.
That side of things is probably one you’ll need to answer for yourself.

Fred

3

Hi,
Thanx a lot I will check this gem and it’s ability. It is pretty cool I
would not have to separate all controllers and views.

Pavel K.