README.md

Custom Entities

This plugin provide easy UI to add new entities (Users,Groups ...etc) by storing them and provide endpoints for catalog to consume them from

This is the front end plugin also check Backend Plugin

Why this plugin

First Deployment and Identity

When setting up backstage for the first time it might be hard to digest everything at once and User/Group management and other entities will need some time to get use to,

Also when integrating with a new Authentication Provider this plugin will be handy to add users quickly

Custom/Limited Authentication Access

Some organisation when integrating with Github/Gitlab or other auth providers don't want to copy the entre org users and groups into backstage and provide access to everyone involved,

This plugin will make it's easy to add/remove new users and groups without the need to maintain a git repo with all users and groups

Also will give a chance to re-organise the groups in case they don't match the hierarchy of the auth provider

Blue Print Entities

This plugin can be used to design all the org setup then quickly validate the result in backstage, After that the resulted custom-entities.yaml can be committed to some repo and location for better control and provision

Demo

You can check a live demo of the plugin here

Installation

This is the front end plugin so make sure to setup the Backend Plugin as well

Install the package

yarn --cwd packages/app add @telereso/backstage-plugin-custom-entities

Adding the plugin to route packages/app

In your packages/app/src/App.tsx add the following changes

+import { CustomEntitiesPage } from '@telereso/backstage-plugin-custom-entities';

const app = createApp({
  apis,
  

const routes = (
  <FlatRoutes>
    /* other routes */
+   <Route path="/custom-entities" element={<CustomEntitiesPage />} />
  </FlatRoutes>
);

Adding to sidebar navigation

In your packages/app/src/compoenets/Root/root.tsx add the following changes

+import SupervisedUserCircleSharpIcon from '@material-ui/icons/SupervisedUserCircleSharp';
import MenuIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Menu';
import SearchIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Search';

export const Root = ({ children }: PropsWithChildren<{}>) => (
  <SidebarPage>
    <Sidebar>
      <SidebarLogo />
      <SidebarGroup label="Search" icon={<SearchIcon />} to="/search">
        <SidebarSearchModal />
      </SidebarGroup>
      <SidebarDivider />
      <SidebarGroup label="Menu" icon={<MenuIcon />}>
        {/* Other Items and groups */}
        <SidebarItem icon={LibraryBooks} to="docs" text="Docs" />
+       <SidebarItem icon={SupervisedUserCircleSharpIcon} to="custom-entities" text="Custom Entities" />
        <SidebarItem icon={CreateComponentIcon} to="create" text="Create..." />
        {/* Other Items and groups */}
  </SidebarPage>
);

Admin Permission

To only give access to admins for this plugin, you can make the following changes

yarn --cwd packages/app add @telereso/backstage-plugin-custom-entities-common
yarn --cwd packages/backend add @telereso/backstage-plugin-custom-entities-common

Update packages/app/src/compoenets/Root/root.tsx

+import SupervisedUserCircleSharpIcon from '@material-ui/icons/SupervisedUserCircleSharp';
import MenuIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Menu';
import SearchIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Search';
+ import {customEntitiesAdministerPermission} from "@telereso/backstage-plugin-custom-entities-common";

export const Root = ({ children }: PropsWithChildren<{}>) => (
  <SidebarPage>
    <Sidebar>
      <SidebarLogo />
      <SidebarGroup label="Search" icon={<SearchIcon />} to="/search">
        <SidebarSearchModal />
      </SidebarGroup>
      <SidebarDivider />
      <SidebarGroup label="Menu" icon={<MenuIcon />}>
        {/* Other Items and groups */}
        <SidebarItem icon={LibraryBooks} to="docs" text="Docs" />
+        <RequirePermission
+            permission={customEntitiesAdministerPermission}
+            errorPage={<></>}>
+          <SidebarItem icon={SupervisedUserCircleSharpIcon} to="custom-entities" text="Custom Entities" />
+        </RequirePermission>
        <SidebarItem icon={CreateComponentIcon} to="create" text="Create..." />
        {/* Other Items and groups */}
  </SidebarPage>
);

then update your policy

+import {customEntitiesUpdatePermission} from "@telereso/backstage-plugin-custom-entities-common"


const GROUP_BACKSTAGE_ADMINS = 'group:default/backstage-admins'

export class TestPermissionPolicy implements PermissionPolicy {
    async handle(request: PolicyQuery, user?: BackstageIdentityResponse,): Promise<PolicyDecision> {

        // Custom Entities
+        if (isPermission(request.permission, customEntitiesUpdatePermission)) {
+            if (user?.identity.ownershipEntityRefs.includes(GROUP_BACKSTAGE_ADMINS,)
+            ) {
+                return {result: AuthorizeResult.ALLOW};
+            }
+            return {result: AuthorizeResult.DENY};
+        }
        
        // Other permission

        return {result: AuthorizeResult.ALLOW};
    }
}