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Database Access Control

There are two kinds of permissions used by the Database REST API : branch permissions and table permissions. They are independent and defined separately : the table permissions are not specific to a branch.

These permissions are sets of usernames or roles. If a user has his name or one of his roles in the set then he has the permission.

To do an action a user need both permissions :

  • To read a field one needs the read permission on this field of the table and to be a reader of the branch
  • To update a field one needs the write permission on this field and to be owner of the branch
  • To insert/delete a line in a table, one needs the write permission on all the fields of the table, to be owner of the branch and the insertion/deletion must be activated in this table.

When discovering a table using the REST API, the result contains canEdit, canInsert and canUpdate fields. These fields are user specific : the value depends on the global table permissions and the user permissions.

Table and Field Permissions​

The permissions can be defined at the table level or at the field level for more detailed permissions. Each field has 2 sets : readers and writers. Giving the permission to a table is equivalent to giving the permission for each field of that table.

Additionally each table can support insertion and deletion via the REST API. This means that a user that has WRITER permissions on each field of the table can insert or delete rows.

These permissions are stored in a ITableSecurity which can be built like that :

TableSecurityBuilder.startBuildingTableSecurity()
    .supportInsertion()
    .supportDeletion()
    .withTableWriters(ROLE_ADMIN)
    .withTableReaders(ROLE_USER)
    .addFieldPermission("currency", Collections.emptyList(), Arrays.asList(ROLE_USER))
    .build();

This table supports deletion and insertion. ROLE_ADMIN can read and edit all the fields. ROLE_USER can read all the fields but only update the currency field, which means that he is not allowed to insert or delete rows.

Branch permissions​

The branch permission manager controls the accesses to both the database and the cube.