ActsAsRole (aka Authenticated Routing)
==========

Requirements:
 Rails 2.x (I'm sure that earlier versions will work), RESTful Authentication

Have you ever wanted to not give delete access to a user but allow them to update.  Or dynamically build the access 
permssions to features?  

Authenticated Routing protects controller actions using the convention of routing resources. It offers fine grained 
control over controller class name and action within a Ruby on Rails applilcation.  The currrent plugin is Roles based 
with a permissions model.   Also, multiple roles given to one person.  Currently, the only way to create and associate 
permissions, roles and users is through the console.  One other nice feature is the ability to conditionally enable 
links in the view.  

Since this grew out of the needs of a production based product the setup is more envolved than I like. It's the first 
thing on thte chopping block.

Example
=======

has_access?(users_path)
 or 
has_access?(:controller => 'users', :action => 'index')



What is missing
=======
 GUI tools: Relate a user to a role, Relate a permissin to a role, Adding Permissions


INSTALLATION: (this is involved)
=======
  1. Install the plugin: script/plugin install git://github.com/wpdavenport/acts_as_role.git
  2. Add the following code to the top of the application controller:
       include ActsAsRole
  3. Add the following code to the top of the application helper:
       include ActsAsRole
  4. Create these tables:
    script/generate model access permission_id:integer role_id:integer
    script/generate model right user_id:integer role_id:integer
    script/generate model role name:string enabled:boolean     # default => true
    script/generate model permission controller:string action:string
  5. Finally we need to add the relationships to the models:
    Access model
     belongs_to :permission
     belongs_to :role

    Rights model
     belongs_to :user
     belongs_to :role
     validates_uniqueness_of :role_id, :scope => :user_id

    Role model
     has_many :accesses, :dependent => :destroy
     has_many :permissions, :through => :accesses
     has_many :rights, :dependent => :destroy
     has_many :users, :through => :rights

    User model
     has_many :rights, :dependent => :destroy
     has_many :roles, :through => :rights

    Permission model
     has_many :accesses, :dependent => :destroy
     has_many :roles, :through => :accesses
     validates_uniqueness_of :action, :scope => :controller

Once the plugin is set up
=======
  - create a role
     role = Role.create(:name => "Admin")
  - create a permission
     permission = Permission.create(:controller => 'users', :action => 'index')
  - Relate a user to a role
     user = User.find(1)
     user.roles << role
  - Relate a permissin to a role
     role.permissions << permission
      

TODO
=======
 • Find a way to simplify permission management
 • Add admin pages to manage roles and permisions



Copyright (c) 2008-2009 [Bill Davenport and Jon Morton], released under the MIT license