Express.js/Mongoose user roles and permissions

Question

I am creating a fairly simple site with Node, Express and Mongoose. The site needs to have have user roles and permissions. My thoughts are that i'll validate permissions based on user interaction with the data base.

In mongoose is there a way to determine the type of CRUD operation currently being carried out possibly by a user?

Answer 1

I've found a solution. It would be great to hear peoples opinions on this.

I have a permissions config object which defines each role and their permissions.

Permissions config object

roles.admin = {
    id: "admin",
    name: "Admin",
    description: "",
    resource : [
        {
            id : 'blog', 
            permissions: ['create', 'read', 'update', 'delete']
        },
        {
            id : 'user',
            permissions: ['create', 'read', 'update', 'delete']
        },
        {
            id : 'journal',
            permissions: ['create', 'read', 'update', 'delete']
        },

    ]
};

roles.editor = {
    id: "editor",
    name: "Editor",
    description: "",
    resource : [
        {
            id : 'blog', 
            permissions: ['create', 'read', 'update', 'delete']
        },
        {
            id : 'user',
            permissions: ['read']
        },
        {
            id : 'journal',
            permissions: ['create', 'read', 'update']
        },

    ]
};

Middleware function

var roles = require('./config');


var permissions = (function () {

  var getRoles = function (role) {

    var rolesArr = [];

    if (typeof role === 'object' && Array.isArray(role)) {

        // Returns selected roles   
        for (var i = 0, len = role.length; i < len; i++) {
            rolesArr.push(roles[role[i]]);
        };
        return rolesArr;

    } else if (typeof role === 'string' || !role) {

        // Returns all roles
        if (!role) {
            for (var role in roles) {
                rolesArr.push(roles[role]);
            };
        }   

        // Returns single role
        rolesArr.push(roles[role]);
        return rolesArr;

    }

},
check = function (action, resource, loginRequired) {

    return function(req, res, next) {

        var isAuth = req.isAuthenticated();

        // If user is required to be logged in & isn't
        if (loginRequired  && !isAuth) {
            return next(new Error("You must be logged in to view this area"));
        }

        if (isAuth || !loginRequired) {

            var authRole = isAuth ? req.user.role : 'user', 
                role =  get(authRole),
                hasPermission = false;

            (function () {
                for (var i = 0, len = role[0].resource.length; i < len; i++){
                    if (role[0].resource[i].id === resource && role[0].resource[i].permissions.indexOf(action) !== -1) {
                        hasPermission = true;
                        return;
                    }
                };
            })();

            if (hasPermission) {
                next();
            } else {
                return next(new Error("You are trying to " + action + " a " + resource + " and do not have the correct permissions."));
            }

        }
    }
}

return {
    get : function (role) {

        var roles = getRoles(role);

        return roles;
    },
    check : function (action, resource, loginRequired) {
        return check(action, resource, loginRequired);
    }
}

})();

module.exports = permissions;

Then i created a middleware function, when the check method gets called it gets the users role from the req object (req.user.role). It then looks at the params passed to the middleware and cross references them with those in the permissions config object.

Route with middlware

app.get('/journal', `**permissions.check('read', 'journal')**`, function (req, res) {
     // do stuff
};

Answer 2

Check the Node module permission for that matter. It's pretty simple concept, I hope they'll allow all CRUD methods too.