Permissions

Permissions dictate the access each user has to data and actions.

Overview

Permissions are related to whether actions are authorized or not. They are also related to access rights, that is, whether an entity is hidden, read, or read-write. The main entities controlled by permissions are:

• Dataspace

• Dataset

• Table

• Group

• Field

Users, roles and profiles

The definition and resolution of permissions make extensive use of the notion of profiles, which is the generic term applied to users or roles.

Each user can participate in several roles, and a role can be shared by several users.

These relationships are defined in the user and roles directory. See Users and roles directory.

Special definitions:

• A built-in administrator is a member of the built-in role 'ADMINISTRATOR'.

• An owner of a dataset is a member of the owner attribute specified in the information of a root dataset. In this case, the built-in role 'OWNER' is activated when permissions are resolved in the context of the dataset.

• An owner of a dataspace is a member of the owner attribute specified for a dataspace. In this case, the built-in role 'OWNER' is activated when permissions are resolved in the context of the dataspace.

Permission rules

A permission rule defines the authorization granted to a profile for a particular entity.

User-defined permission rules are created through the user interface. See the section Defining user-defined rules.

Dynamic permission rules can be either programmatic rules created by developers, or scripted rules created by administrators. See the section Defining dynamic rules.

Resolution of permissions

Permissions are always resolved in the context of an authenticated user session, thus permissions are mainly based on the user profiles.

In general, resolution of permissions is performed restrictively between a given level and its parent level. Thus, at any given level, a user cannot have a higher permission than the one resolved at a parent level.

Dynamic permissions are always considered to be restrictive.

Owner and administrator special permissions

On a dataset

A built-in administrator or owner of a dataset can perform the following actions:

• Manage its permissions

• Change its owner, if the dataset is a root dataset

• Change its general information (localized labels and descriptions)

On a dataspace

To be a super owner of a dataspace, a user must either:

• Own the dataspace and be allowed to manage its permissions, or

• Own a dataspace that is an ancestor of the current dataspace and be allowed to manage the permissions of that ancestor dataspace.

A built-in administrator or super owner of a dataspace can perform the following actions:

• Manage its permissions of dataspace.

• Change its owner

• Lock it or unlock it

• Change its general information (localized labels and descriptions)

Furthermore, in a workflow, when using a "Create a dataspace" or "Create a snapshot" built-in script task, resolved permissions are computed using the owner defined in the script task's configuration, rather than the current session. This is because, in these cases, the current session is associated with a system user.

Impact of merge on permissions

When a dataspace is merged, the permissions of the child dataset are merged with those of the parent dataspace if and only if the user specifies to do so during the merge process. The permissions of its parent dataspace are never impacted.

If some elements are hidden for the profile attempting to perform a merge, it will not be possible to proceed as the impacts of the merge on data will not be fully visible.

Important considerations about permissions

In this section are listed some very important information that must be kept in mind while working with permissions.

Actions and user services granting high privileges

The following actions and their related user services must only be allowed to trusted administrators:

• 'Create dataspace' (gives the 'owner' role, which grants the right to define the dataspace permissions)

• 'Create dataset' (gives the 'owner' role, which grants the right to define the dataset permissions)

• 'Import archive' (allows writing the archive content regardless of any permission)

API access without permission checks

Developers and administrators must be aware that some parts of the API can run without any permission check. In general if the code run in a context with a Session provided, it means that permissions will be checked. Here are some specific cases where permissions are not checked:

• When a Java procedure disables all permission checks by using ProcedureContext.setAllPrivileges.

• When accessing EBX data by directly querying your database, in the case a table enables the replication mode, or the historization. This is because EBX permissions are not "translated" in the underlying database. As a consequence, either the database access must be globally restricted or proper permissions must be defined in it.

Using permission for hiding information in the UI

Using the permissions only to hide in the UI some non sensitive information is highly unadvised, especially if this information is likely to be used for filtering / joining / sorting in some queries. In such cases, UI-only hiding methods should be used instead. For instance by setting the field as hidden for default views in the datamodel property and/or by creating views for the concerned users.

Limitations of the permission checks in Query API

The permission check performed when specifying a session in a Query or Request will throw a QueryPermissionException if any field used in the query is hidden for the current user. However there are some specificities to know that are described hereafter:

• Fields belonging to primary keys are not checked and are always considered as usable.

• AccessRule set on fields which are record-dependent are ignored by this permission check. In other words, method AccessRule.getPermission is only called with the dataset as the aDataSetOrRecord parameter, never with a record.

As a consequence to the last point, it is recommended be very vigilant when using this kind of rules because a malicious user could "guess" sensitive information by filtering or sorting on these nodes when using a component relying on these API. For instance, a developer could decide to prevent the query to run as soon as a field has an AccessRule defined on it, to remove such criteria before executing the query, or to completely hide the records for which some fields are confidential.

Scripted permission rules on records and table history

There is currently a limitation when a table has both the history activated and a scripted permission rule on record specified: for security reason access to the table history is totally disabled for everyone. Access to history will be allowed in a future version.

Using hidden fields in custom display labels

Resolution of custom display labels for tables ('defaultLabel' property) and relationships ('display' property) takes into account permission. As soon as an hidden field is detected in the label, the primary key will be displayed instead.

Because of this behavior it is highly discouraged to use labels for filtering in a query. When labels with hidden fields are used, it will be replaced by the pk value and the filter will become inconsistent.

Linked field permission check

When a linked field access permission is computed, the result is the minimum between the permission applying to the node in the main table and the node in the target table. Practically it means that if a field is hidden in a table, all linked fields pointing on it in other tables will also be hidden.

Table action permission related limitations

When performing actions on a table (create, delete, overwrite or occult) in a procedure, the current user session access right on the table node is ignored during the permission resolution. Should this check be performed, the client code must explicitly call SessionPermissions.getNodeAccessPermission beforehand in the procedure.

Permission cache life cycle

To optimize the resolution of permissions for both data and user services, a dedicated cache is implemented at the session level. All permissions are cached including dynamic rules, it means that a rule result should not change for the duration of the cache which is explained below.

The session cache life cycle depends on the context, as described hereafter:

• In the UI, the cache is cleared for every non-ajax event (i.e on page display, pop-up opening, etc.).

• In programmatic procedures, the cache lasts until the end of the procedure, unless explicitly cleared (see below).

  Attention

  When modifying permissions in a procedure context (by importing an EBX® archive or merging a dataspace programmatically), the session cache must be cleared via a call to Session.clearCache. Otherwise, these modifications will not be reflected until the end of the procedure.

Defining user-defined rules

Each level has a similar schema, which allows defining permission rules for profiles.

Defining dataspace user-defined rules

For a given dataspace, the allowable permissions for each profile are as follows:

Dataspace access	Authorization
Write	Can view the dataspace. Can access datasets according to dataset permissions.
Read-only	Can view the dataspace and its snapshots. Can view child dataspaces, if allowed by permissions. Can view contents of the dataspace, though cannot modify them.
Hidden	Can neither see the dataspace nor its snapshots. If allowed to view child dataspace, can see the current dataspace but cannot select it. Cannot access the dataspace contents, including datasets. Cannot perform any actions on the dataspace.

Restriction policy	Indicates whether this dataspace profile-permission association should have priority over other permissions rules.
Create a child dataspace	Indicates whether the profile can create child dataspaces from the current dataspace.
Create a child snapshot	Indicates whether the profile can create snapshots of the current dataspace.
Initiate merge	Indicates whether the profile can merge the current dataspace with its parent dataspace.
Export archive	Indicates whether the profile can export the current dataspace as an archive.
Import archive	Indicates whether the profile can import an archive into the current dataspace.
Close a dataspace	Indicates whether the profile can close the current dataspace.
Close a snapshot	Indicates whether the profile can close a snapshot of the current dataspace.
Rights on services	Indicates if a profile has the right to execute services on the dataspace. By default, all dataspace services are allowed. A built-in administrator or super owner of the current dataspace or a given user who is allowed to modify permissions on the current dataspace can modify these permissions to restrict dataspace services for certain profiles.
Permissions of child dataspace when created	When a user creates a child dataspace, the permissions of this new dataspace are automatically assigned to the profile's owner, based on the permissions defined under 'Permissions of child dataspace when created' in the parent dataspace. If multiple permissions are defined for the owner through different roles, the owner's profile behaves like any other profile and permissions are resolved as usual.

Defining dataset user-defined rules

For a given dataset, the allowable permissions for each profile are as follows:

Actions on datasets

Restriction policy	Indicates whether this dataset profile-permission association should have priority over other permissions rules.
Create a child dataset	Indicates whether the profile has the right to create a child dataset of the current dataset.
Duplicate dataset	Indicates whether the profile has the right to duplicate the current dataset.
Change the dataset parent	Indicates whether the profile has the right to change the parent dataset of a given child dataset.

Actions on tables

The action rights on default tables are defined at the dataset level. It is then possible to override these default rights for one or more tables. The allowable permissions for each profile are as follows:

Create a new record	Indicates whether the profile has the right to create records in the table.
Overwrite inherited record	Indicates whether the profile has the right to overwrite inherited records in the table.
Occult inherited record	Indicates whether the profile has the right to occult inherited records in the table.
Delete a record	Indicates whether the profile has the right to delete records in the table.

Access rights on node values

Permissions defined on specific terminal nodes override their default access rights.

Read-write	Can view and modify node values.
Read	Can view nodes, but cannot modify their values.
Hidden	Cannot view nodes.

Permissions on services

A built-in administrator or an owner of the current dataspace can modify the service default permission to either restrict or grant access to certain profiles.

Enabled	Grants service access to the current profile.
Disabled	Forbids service access to the current profile. It will not be displayed in menus, nor will it be launchable via web components.
Default	Sets the service permission to enabled or disabled, according to the default permission defined upon service declaration. See ActivationContext.setDefaultPermission for more information.

Defining dynamic rules

Dynamic rules give the possibility to define more precisely the conditions for accessing data or user services depending on the context.

There are different types of programmatic rules:

• the AccessRule, described in the section below Defining access rules on data.

• the scripted record permission rule, described in the section below Defining scripted permission rules on data.

• the ServiceActivationRule, described in the section below Defining activation rules on service.

• the ServicePermissionRule, described in the section below Defining permission rules on service.

Defining scripted permission rules on data

scripted permission rules are rules that dynamically define, depending on the context, the read/write rights on the records of a table.

To define such a rule, a record permission script must be created in the DMA. A script editor is available on the table node definition, in the "Extensions" tab.

Defining access rules on data

AccessRules are rules that programmatically define, depending on the context, the read/write rights on a data model node or on the records of a table.

The definition of an AccessRule is performed as follows:

1. Creation of a rule in the form of a Java class implementing the AccessRule or AccessRuleForCreate interface.

2. Assignment of this rule to concerned nodes in the schema extension: SchemaExtensions.

   According to the rule target (model node(s) or records) and type (AccessRule or AccessRuleForCreate), several methods such as SchemaExtensionsContext.setAccessRuleOnOccurrence or SchemaExtensionsContext.setAccessRuleForCreateOnNode can be used.

   The rule thus assigned is said to be "local" and is only executed when the target entity is requested. See Resolving permissions on data for more information.

   Attention

   Only one AccessRule can be defined for each node, dataspace or record. Only one AccessRuleForCreate can be defined for each table child node. The definition of a new programmatic rule of one type will lead to the replacement of the existing one.

Defining activation rules on service

The ServiceActivationRules allow to specify if a service is activated or not for a given dataspace or dataset. A service that has been deactivated through this rule is never available in the entity for which it is deactivated, regardless of the current profile, for execution or display, even in permission screens.

The definition of a ServiceActivationRule is carried out as follows:

1. Creation of a rule in the form of a Java class implementing the ServiceActivationRuleForDataspace interface or ServiceActivationRuleForDataset, depending on the service type.

2. Assignment of this rule to the impacted services at their declaration level, depending on the service type, via the ActivationContextOnDataspace.setActivationRule or ActivationContextWithDatasetSet.setActivationRule methods.

   The resulting assigned rule will be evaluated during the service activation evaluation. See Resolving permissions on services for more information.

Defining permission rules on service

The ServicePermissionRules are advanced rules allowing to dynamically define the display and execution conditions of a service depending on the context (current session, selected entity, etc.). The service should be activated for the current context beforehand for this type of rule to be triggered.

The definition of a ServicePermissionRule is carried out as follows:

1. Creation of a rule in the form of a Java class implementing the ServicePermissionRule interface.

2. Assignment of this rule to the impacted services:

   • Either, for new services, at their declaration level via the ActivationContext.setPermissionRule method.

     The rule thus assigned is said to be "global" and is only executed when the service is activated for the current context. See Resolving permissions on services for more information.

   • Or, for existing services, in the schema extension via the SchemaExtensionsContext.setServicePermissionRuleOnNode and SchemaExtensionsContext.setServicePermissionRuleOnNodeAndAllDescendants methods. It is thus possible to assign a rule to any service, including standard services provided by EBX®, on one or more data model nodes: a table node, an association node, etc.

     The rule thus assigned is said to be "local" and is only executed in the extended schema context and when the node corresponds to the one specified. See Resolving permissions on services for more information.

     Attention

     Only one ServicePermissionRule can be defined for each model node. Thus, the definition of a new programmatic rule will replace the existing one.

Resolving permissions on data

Resolving user-defined rules

Access rights defined using the user interface are resolved on four levels: dataspace, dataset, record (if applicable) and node.

If a profile is associated with restrictive access rights at a given level, the minimum of all restrictive rights defined at that level is resolved. If no restrictions are defined at that level, the maximum of all access rights defined at that level is resolved.

When a restrictive permission is defined for a profile, it takes precedence over the other permissions potentially granted by the user's other roles. Generally, for all user-defined permission rules that match the current user session:

• If some rules with restrictions are defined, the minimum permissions of these restricted rules are applied.

• If no rules having restrictions are defined, the maximum permissions of all matching rules are applied.

Examples:

Given two profiles P1 and P2 concerning the same user, the following table lists the possibilities when resolving that user's permission to a service.

P1 authorization	P2 authorization	Permission resolution
Enabled	Enabled	Enabled. Restrictions do not make any difference.
Disabled	Disabled	Disabled. Restrictions do not make any difference.
Enabled	Disabled	Enabled, unless P2's authorization is a restriction.
Disabled	Enabled	Enabled, unless P1's authorization is a restriction.

The same restriction policy is applied for data access rights resolution.

In another example, a dataspace can be hidden from all users by defining a restrictive association between the built-in profile "Profile.EVERYONE" and the access right "hidden".

At any given level, the most restrictive access rights between those resolved at this level and higher levels are applied. For instance, if a user's dataset access permissions resolve to read-write access, but the container dataspace only allows read access, the user will only have read-only access to this dataset.

Access rights resolution example

In this example, there are three users who belong to the following defined roles and profiles:

User	Profile
User 1	user1 role A role B
User 2	user2 role A role B role C
User 3	user3 role A role C

The access rights of the profiles on a given element are as follows:

Profile	Access rights	Restriction policy
user1	Hidden	Yes
user3	Read	No
Role A	Read/Write	No
Role B	Read	Yes
Role C	Hidden	No

After resolution based on the role and profile access rights above, the rights that are applied to each user are as follows:

User	Resolved access rights
User 1	Hidden
User 2	Read
User 3	Read/Write

Resolving dataspace and snapshot access rights

At dataspace level, access rights are resolved as follows:

• If a user has several rights defined through multiple profiles:

  • If the rights include restrictions, the minimum of the restrictive profile-rights associations is applied.

  • Otherwise, the maximum of the profile-rights associations is applied.

• If the user has no rights defined:

  • If the user is a built-in administrator or owner of the dataspace, read-write access is given for this dataspace.

  • Otherwise, the dataspace will be hidden.

Resolving dataset access rights

At the dataset level, the same principle applies as at the dataspace level. After resolving the access rights at the dataset level alone, the final access rights are determined by taking the minimum rights between the resolved dataspace rights and the resolved dataset rights. For example, if a dataspace is resolved to be read-only for a user and one of its datasets is resolved to be read-write, the user will only have read-only access to that dataset.

Resolving node access rights

At the node level, the same principle applies as at the dataspace and dataset levels. After resolving the access rights at the node level alone, the final access rights are determined by taking the minimum rights between the resolved dataset rights and the resolved node rights.

Specific access rights can be defined at the node level. If no specific access right is defined, the default access right is used for the resolution process.

Special case for table and table child nodes

This describes the resolution process used for a given table node or table record N.

For each user-defined permission rule that matches one of the user's profiles, the access rights for N are either:

1. The locally defined access rights for N;

2. Inherited from the access rights defined on the table node;

3. Inherited from the default access rights for dataset values.

All matching user-defined permission rules are used to resolve the access rights for N. Resolution is done according to the restriction policy.

The final resolved access rights will be the minimum between the dataspace, dataset and the resolved access right for N.

Resolving dynamic rules

There are three levels of resolution for dynamic access right rules: dataset, record and node. Since only one programmatic access rule can be set for a given level, the last rule set is the one used by the resolution procedure. However, a scripted rule can be specified on top of a programmatic rule at the table level.

Rule resolution on dataset

For a dataset, the last rule set is considered as the resolved rule

Rule resolution on record

For a record, the resolved rule is the minimum between the resolved rule set on the dataset and the rule set on this record.

See SchemaExtensionsContext.setAccessRuleOnOccurrence for more details.

Rule resolution on node

For a node that is a child node of a record, the resolved rule is the minimum between the resolved rule on the record and the rule set on this node.

For a child node of a dataset, the resolved rule is the minimum between the resolved rule set on the dataset and the rule set on this node.

See SchemaExtensionsContext.setAccessRuleOnNode for more details.

Display policy for foreign key drop-down menus

If a record is hidden due to access rules, it will not appear in foreign key drop-down menus.

Resolving permissions on services

User services give the possibility to execute specific and advanced features from the user interface. Depending on their definition, these services can be called from a menu, as an action in a workflow, as a perspective item, or can be executed directly from a URL as a Web component.

The permissions of a service are resolved as the service is called from the user interface, namely:

• During the execution, just before the service is displayed.

  If the permission resolved in the user context is not enabled, a restriction message is displayed in place of the service.

• During the display of menus if the service is defined as displayable in menus.

  If the permission resolved in the context for the user is not enabled, the service will not be displayed in the menu.

Thus, upon every request the resolution of permissions for a service is carried out as follows, in the following order and as long as conditions are respected:

1. The service activation has to correspond to the current context. This activation considers:

   • the selected entity type (dataset, table, record, etc.);

   • static activation rules defined within the UserServiceDeclaration.defineActivation method;

   • the potential dynamic activation rule (ServiceActivationRule) also defined within the UserServiceDeclaration.defineActivation method.

2. When the service is activated for the current context, permissions for the user session will be evaluated:

   • If permissions have been defined via the user interface for the current user (or for their roles), their resolution must return enabled.

     For more information, please refer to the Resolving user-defined rules section.

   • If a global permission rule is defined for the service, it must return enabled for the context provided (see ServicePermissionRuleContext).

   • If a local permission rule is defined for the selected node, it must return enabled for the context provided (see ServicePermissionRuleContext).

Resolving user-defined rules

Example

In this example, there are two users belonging to different roles and profiles:

User	Profiles
User 1	user1 role A role B
User 2	role C role D

The permissions associated with the roles and profiles defined on the dataset level are as follows:

Profile	Built-in service create (@creation)	Built-in service duplicate (@duplicate)	Built-in service compare (@compare)	Custom service 1 (custom1)	Custom service 2 (custom2)	Restriction policy
user1	Enabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled	Enabled	No
Role A	Enabled	Enabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled	Yes
Role B	Enabled	Disabled	Enabled	Enabled	Disabled	Yes
Role C	Enabled	Enabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	No
Role D	Enabled	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled	No

The services available to each user after permission resolution are as follows:

Users	Available services
User 1	Built-in service create (@creation)
	Custom service 1 (custom1)
User 2	Built-in service create (@creation)
	Built-in service duplicate (@duplicate)
	Custom service 1 (custom1)

Resolving permissions on actions

Actions are low-level operations for EBX® object manipulation on which it is possible to define execution rights for a profile. Unlike permissions on user services, which only impact the user interface, these rights are also applicable when an operation is carried out programmatically (i.e. via a Procedure) or indirectly (for example during data import, actions on the table (create, override, occult and delete) are evaluated).

Here is the list of actions on which rights can be defined:

Action object	Available actions
Dataspace	Create a child dataspace
	Create a snapshot
	Launch a merge
	Export an archive
	Import an archive
	Close the dataspace
	Close the snapshot
	Create a dataset
Dataset	Duplicate the dataset
	Delete the dataset
	Activate/deactivate the dataset
	Create a view
Table	Create a new record
	Override records
	Occult records
	Delete records

For the resolution of permissions on actions, only the permissions defined via the user interface for the current user (or their roles) will be taken into account, the restriction policy being applied as for any other permission defined via the user interface.

For more information, please refer to the Resolving user-defined rules section.

Resolving user-defined rules

Example

In this example, we have two users belonging to different roles and profiles:

User	Profiles
User 1	user1 role A role B
User 2	role C role D

Rights associated with roles and profiles on the actions of a given table are as follows:

Profile	Create a record	Override a record	Occult a record	Delete a record	Restriction policy
user1	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Role A	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Role B	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Role C	Yes	No	No	No	No
Role D	No	No	Yes	No	No

The actions available to each user after resolving the rights are as follows:

Users	Available actions
User 1	Occult a record
User 2	Create a record
	Occult a record