Cascade Access Tool

Caution: these tools will allow you to make changes to your Cascade Server. They will allow you to make site wide changes to all of your assets. Used correctly they will save you countless hours of manual labor; used incorrectly they cost you hours of manual labor.

As such you should:

review the code
review access rights
start with node access-report.js, document the current settings for your site
make your own version of siterules.json files for each site you will work with
run the tool with node access-engine.js against your test server with a full copy of the data restored from your production server before pointing it at your production server
use node access-report.js to review the changes that were made and verify that it is applying the rules you think you wrote
only when you are happy with the results on your test server and feel you understand what is being done should you use node access-engine.js on your production server

Once either tool is run it will prompt you for:

a server to connect to -- should be in the format of http:// or https:// followed by your server name and port if needed.
a username to connect with. The username needs edit rights to all of the assets it will be attempting to change.
a password
a site name
a starting path within that site. To run against an entire site use the default of /.
for access-engine it will ask for the name of a rules file to use.

The actions this tool takes are guided by the content of the file of rules you provide to it. If you tell this tool to remove all access to your assets it will do that.

Rule Files

Rule files hold JSON objects and their filenames end with .json. You can use a JSON validator tool to make sure that the syntax of the file is proper JSON.

The outer wrapper should be an array. Within that appear the rules as objects.

"name": entries are for documentation and debugging purposes.

"action": entries with the value of "override" change the mode of the rule. Once set other non-override rules will not apply to matching objects.

"assetName": entries will match asset names and paths and allow the use of wildcards *.

"pageContentType": entries only work with page assets. It allows matching based on the page Content Type. This can be used alone, or in combination with assetName.

"all": entries support the following values "none", "read", and "write"

"acls": mark the start of an array that will hold acl objects.

acl objects need values supplied for "level", "type", and "name".

"level" should contain either "read" or "write".

"type" should contain either "group" or "user"

Sample Rules File

[
	{
		"name": "Let Marketing edit everything",
		"assetName": "*",
		"acls": [
			{
				"level": "write",
				"type": "group",
				"name": "Marketing"
			}
		],
		"all": "read"
	},
	{
		"name": "Let faculty read their directory",
		"assetName": "faculty*",
		"acls": [
			{
				"level": "read",
				"type": "group",
				"name": "faculty"
			}
		]
	},
	{
		"name": "Let the Dean edit their directory",
		"assetName": "faculty/dean",
		"acls": [
			{
				"level": "write",
				"type": "user",
				"name": "dean"
			}
		]
	},
	{
		"name": "hide programmatic assets overriding other rules",
		"action": "override",
		"assetName": "*.txt",
		"acls": [
			{
				"level": "write",
				"type": "group",
				"name": "IT"
			}
		],
		"all": "none"
	},
	{
		"name": "protect internal assets",
		"action": "override",
		"assetName": "_internal*",
		"all": "none"
	},
	{
		"name": "event",
		"pageContentType": "event",
		"acls": [
			{
				"level": "write",
				"type": "group",
				"name": "externalRelations"
			},
			{
				"level": "read",
				"type": "group",
				"name": "IT"
			},
			{
				"level": "read",
				"type": "group",
				"name": "marketing"
			}
		],
		"all": "write"
	}
]

Installation Notes

You will need NodeJS installed. It appears to install easily under Linux, but Windows users may need to install Python 2.7 and a complier. The free Visual Studio from Microsoft works.

Once you have cloned a copy of this on your workstation change directory to it and npm install. This should install both prompt and soap-cascade.

Release History

2013-09-17 version 0.1.0 launched at Cascade Server Users Conference #csuc13

jraller/cascade-access-tool

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