Status

react-router-permissions

Installation

Using yarn:

$ yarn add @tshio/react-router-permissions

Using npm:

$ npm install --save @tshio/react-router-permissions

Usage

Goal of this package is to provide abstraction layer for handling authorization with react-router. The only requirement for AuthorizedRoute to work is to have any kind Router and at least one PermissionsProvider higher in your component tree.

A codesandbox example is available.

import React from 'react';
import { createStore } from 'redux';
import { Provider } from 'react-redux';
import { BrowserRouter, Switch, Route, Redirect } from 'react-router-dom';

const store = createStore(state => ({ ...state }), {
  authorization: {
    roles: ['USER', 'ADMIN'],
  },
});

const authorizationStrategy = (roles, requirement) => {
  return roles.find(role => role === requirement);
};

// it's possible to override strategy for single route
const loginAuthorizationStrategy = (roles, requirement) => {
  return roles && roles.length;
};

class App extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Provider store={store}>
        <PermissionsProvider
          permissions={store.getState().authorization.roles}
          authorizationStrategy={permissionsStrategy}
        >
          <BrowserRouter>
            <Switch>
              <AuthorizedRoute path="/login" authorizationStrategy={loginAuthorizationStrategy}>
                {({ isAuthorized }) => (isAuthorized ? <Login /> : <Redirect to="/home" />)}
              </AuthorizedRoute>
              <Route path="/home" component={Home} />
              <AuthorizedRoute path="/users" requires="ADMIN">
                {({ isAuthorized }) => (isAuthorized ? <Users /> : <Redirect to="/home" />)}
              </AuthorizedRoute>
            </Switch>
          </BrowserRouter>
        </PermissionsProvider>
      </Provider>
    );
  }
}

authorizationStrategy is a function that gets called each time user either tries to access authorized content. It is called with permissions passed to PermissionsProvider as first argument and requirement passed to AuthorizedRoute as second. It's result is stored in isAuthorized property on ChildrenAsFunction Function used by AuthorizedRoute.

User is not bound to using role base authorization strategies. To showcase that we would need to make following changes to our example:

const store = createStore(
  state => ({...state}), {
    authorization: {
      permissions: {
        "access-home": true,
        "access-users-list": false,
      },
     }
  });

const authorizationStrategy = (permissions, requirement) => {
  return permissions[requirement];
};

...
<PermissionsProvider
  permissions={store.getState().authorization.permissions}
  authorizationStrategy={permissionsStrategy}
>

...

<AuthorizedRoute
  path='/users'
  requires='access-users-list'
>

There are some strategies provided with the package out of the box. Those are:

• Role based strategy

  const permissions = ['MODERATOR', 'PREMIUM_USER'];
  
  ...
  // authorization will pass
  <AuthorizedRoute
    path='/authorized-section'
    requires='MODERATOR'
  >
  ...
  
  ...
  // authorization will fail
  <AuthorizedRoute
    path='/authorized-section'
    requires='ADMIN'
  >
  ...

• Permissions based strategy

  const permissions = {
    canReadPosts: true,
    canManagePosts: true,
    canManageUsers: false,
  };
  
  ...
  // authorization will pass
  <AuthorizedRoute
    path='/authorized-section'
    requires='canManagePosts'
  >
  ...
  
  ...
  // authorization will fail
  <AuthorizedRoute
    path='/authorized-section'
    requires='canManageUsers'
  >
  ...

• At least one strategy

  const permissions = {
    canReadPosts: true,
    canManagePosts: false,
    canManageUsers: false,
    canViewUsers: false,
  };
  
  ...
  // authorization will pass
  <AuthorizedRoute
    path='/authorized-section'
    requires={['canReadPosts', 'canManagePosts']}
  >
  ...
  
  ...
  // authorization will fail
  <AuthorizedRoute
    path='/authorized-section'
    requires={['canManageUsers', 'canViewUsers']}
  >
  ...

We also provide authorized section to cover cases where we need authorization but want to be route agnostic

class Home extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Fragment>
        <Header />
        <AuthorizedSection requires="ADMIN">
          {({ isAuthorized }) => (isAuthorized ? <Users /> : null)}
        </AuthorizedSection>
      </Fragment>
    );
  }
}

This works exactly like AuthorizedRoute but will attempt access regardless of active route.

Since permissions are being fetched from context, it is possible to override them for certain section of our application using nested PermissionsProvider. Result of authorizationStrategy does not need to be boolean too. While most of the time it being a boolean might be convenient. It is possible for authorizationStrategy to return complex object that we can utilize in our component.

const store = createStore(
  state => ({...state}), {
    permissions: {
      ...,
      "nested-permissions": {
        "user-name": {
          create: true,
          read: true,
          update: false,
          delete: false,
        }
      },
      ...,
    }
  });

const authorizationStrategy = (permissions, requirement) => {
  return permissions[requirement];
};

class Header extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <PermissionsProvider
        permissions={store.getState().permissions[`nested-permissions`]}
        authorizationStrategy={permissionsStrategy}
      >
        <AuthorizedSection
          requires='user-name'
        >
          {({isAuthorized}) => (
            isAuthorized.read ? (
              <Fragment>
              <h4>
                Name
              </h4>
              <span>
                Matt Murdock
              </span>
                {isAuthorized.create && (
                  <button>Add</button>
                )}
                {isAuthorized.delete && (
                  <button>Delete</button>
                )}
            </Fragment>
            ) : null
          )}
        </AuthorizedSection>
      </PermissionsProvider>
    );
  }
}

We decided to use hooks in our library. Therefore, we are introducing 2 our hooks: useAuthorize which one is returning a value of authorization.

export const AdminSection = ({ requires, authorizationStrategy }) => {
  const isAuthorized = useAuthorize(requires, authorizationStrategy);

  return isAuthorized ? <h2>Admin New's</h2> : null;
};

Second hook is usePermission which one is returning an object with permissions and authorizationStrategy from the nearest PermissionsProvider.

export const PermissionsRoles = () => {
  const { permissions } = usePermissions();
  return <span>Roles length: {permissions.length} </span>;
};

Config options

PermissionsProvider

Property name	Type	Required	Description
permissions	Array or Object	true	Permissions granted to user throughout the application. Can take any shape or form
authorizationStrategy	(permissions, requirement) => *	true	Function that is aware of permissions format and is called for each authorization attempt with permissions and given requirement

AuthorizedRoute

Property name	Type	Required	Description
path	string	true	Path that when accessed in by browser, will trigger authorization attempt
requires	*	false	Requirement that will be used in access attempt call
authorizationStrategy	(permissions, requirement) => *	false	Function that if passed will override authorizationStrategy passed to nearest PermissionsProvider

AuthorizedSection

Property name	Type	Required	Description
requires	*	true	Requirement that will be used in access attempt call
authorizationStrategy	(permissions, requirement) => *	false	Function that if passed will override authorizationStrategy passed to nearest PermissionsProvider

Hooks

Hook's name	Arguments	Description
usePermissions	null	Returns context of nearest Permissions Provider
useAuthorize	(requirement, authorizationStrategy?) => *	Returns a value of authorization. AuthorizationStrategy argument is optional. If passed, will override existing strategy.

Development

We welcome all contributions. Please read our CONTRIBUTING.md first. You can submit any ideas as GitHub issues.