Node ACL

This library provides a minimalistic ACL implementation with no connection to a database.

Installation

$ npm install node-access-control --save

Define the authorisations

It's recommended to deny access to all, then allows the routes for some specific roles. Note that an user is by default considered as authenticated if it contains an id.

const acl = require('node-access-control');  
  
acl.denyAll();
acl.add(['admin', 'developer'], 'any' , '.*', 'allow');
acl.add(['authenticated', 'marketing'], 'GET' , '/api/cases/.*', 'allow');
acl.add(['authenticated', 'marketing'], 'POST' , '/api/cases/.*', 'allow');
acl.add(['marketing'], 'DELETE' , '/api/cases/.*', 'deny');

Check the access

Checks the access by getting the user roles

const user = {
    ...
    roles: ['marketing'],
  };
acl.can(user, 'GET', '/api/cases/123-abc/comments/456-abc') // return true
acl.can(user, 'GET', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return true
acl.can(user, 'POST', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return true
acl.can(user, 'DELETE', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return false

//this user will be considered as authenticated because it contains an id
const user = {
    id: 34,
    roles: []
};
acl.can(user, 'GET', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return true
acl.can(user, 'POST', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return true
acl.can(user, 'DELETE', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return false

//this user will NOT be considered as authenticated because it does not contains any id
const user = {
    roles: []
};
acl.can(user, 'GET', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return false
acl.can(user, 'POST', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return false
acl.can(user, 'DELETE', '/api/cases/123-abc') // return false

Custom user structure

acl.setRolesGetter(user => {
    const roles = [];
    if (user.admin) {
      roles.push('admin');
    }
    if (user.developer) {
      roles.push('developer');
    }
    return roles;
});

const user = {
    ...
    admin: true,
    developer: true,
};

acl.can(user, 'GET', '/api/cases') // return true

Denies all

Checks the access by getting the user roles

acl.denyAll();
  
//this is the same as 
acl.add(['any'], 'any' , '.*', 'deny');

Documentation

add(roles, verb, url, permission)

Adds a specific access control.

roles {Array} Any roles that you want. The role 'any' and 'authenticated' already exist
verb {string} GET|POST|PATCH|PUT|DELETE|any (wildcard)
url {string} RegExp route
permission {string} allow|deny

can(user, verb, url)

Returns if the user have access to a specific route.

user {object} User containing the roles
verb {string} GET|POST|PATCH|PUT|DELETE|any (wildcard)
url {string} Route to test

setRolesGetter(method)

Defines a custom method to retrieve the user roles

method {Function} Function called when acl needs to retrieve the user roles

denyAll()

Denies all routes for all users