Lineage

Lineage

Implemented an authorization system at ProfitStreams.

Initially, the cancan gem was integrated and used to make user role-based authorization checks.

However, the product team and business analysts communicated a system where some permissions are authorized from a user's role(s), some permissions are authorized from the products assigned to a business, and some permissions are authorized only when authorized by both the user's role(s) and the business's products.

A code smell began to emerge where presentation checks on view elements, and action checks in controllers, became compound conditionals :

    can(:view, MarketingCampaign) && current_business.products.include?(:marketing_campaigns)

The permissify library and specification interfaces where created to address this code smell and provide a mechanism which matched the way upstream collaborators viewed the application.

The then-library remained unchanged through many releases, and

• new abilities introduced with new releases
• associated role, product seeding additions, and other seeding changes

Original implementation : ruby 1.8.7, rails 2.3.5, not a gem : just a subdirectory under /lib

Chose to extract permissify from ProfitStreams code base (I was authorized to do this :) as a means to publish my first gem and get my feet wet with rails 3.2. Extracted/gem-ified code, created generators, made adjustments for rails 2.3.5 --> 3.2.3, other refinements.

Initial, ready-for-some-other-app-to-try-to-use gem implementation : version 0.1.0, MySQL db, ruby 1.8.7, rails 3.2.3, tested with FF 14.0.1

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