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Overview

Introduction​

All users associated with a single Casdoor organization share access to the organization's applications. However, there may be instances where you want to restrict user access to certain applications or specific resources within an application. In such cases, you can utilize the Permission feature provided by Casbin.

Understanding Casbin Concepts​

Before delving deeper into the topic, it is important to have a basic understanding of how Casbin works and its related concepts:

  • Model: Defines the structure of your permission policies and the criteria for matching requests against these policies and their outcomes. You can configure models in the Models page in Casdoor.
  • Policy: Describes the specific permission rules (who can access what resources with what actions). You configure policies in the Permissions page in Casdoor.
  • Adapter: An abstraction layer that shields Casbin's executor from the source of the Policy, allowing the storage of Policies in various locations like files or databases. Learn more about Adapters.
Learn More About Casbin

Visit the Casbin documentation to learn more about access control models and patterns. You can also use the Casbin Online Editor to create and test Model and Policy files for your specific scenarios.

Configuring Permissions in Casdoor​

Where to Configure​

In the Casdoor Web UI, you'll work with two main pages:

  1. Models Page: Navigate to Models in the sidebar to add or edit Models for your organization.

    Model Edit Page

  2. Permissions Page: Navigate to Permissions in the sidebar to configure permission policies.

    Permission Edit Page

How Permissions Work​

Returning to the subject of permission configuration in Casdoor:

  1. Add a Model: First, create a Model for your organization in the Models page within the Casdoor Web UI.
  2. Configure a Policy: Then, add a Policy (permission rules) for your organization in the Permissions page.

The Casbin Online Editor can provide you with Model and Policy files tailored to your specific usage scenarios. You can effortlessly import the Model file into Casdoor through its Web UI for use by the built-in Casbin. For the Policy configuration (i.e., the Permissions page in the Casdoor Web UI), refer to the Permission Configuration guide for detailed instructions.

Using Permissions with Your Application​

Just as your application needs to enforce permission control through Casdoor's built-in Casbin, Casdoor itself utilizes its own Model and Policy to regulate access permissions for the API interfaces through Casbin. Though Casdoor can call Casbin from internal code, external applications cannot.

As a solution, Casdoor exposes an API for external applications to call the built-in Casbin. See the Exposed Casbin APIs documentation for definitions of these API interfaces and instructions on how to use them.

Account Item Permissions​

Casdoor also provides fine-grained permission control at the user account field level through the Edit Organization page:

  • View rule: Control who can view specific user account fields
  • Modify rule: Control who can modify specific user account fields

These rules can be set to:

  • Public: Everyone has permission
  • Self: Each user has their own permission
  • Admin: Only administrators have permission

Learn more in the Account Customization documentation.

Role-Based Access Control​

Casdoor supports role-based permissions where you can assign roles to users and configure permission policies for these roles. This allows you to manage permissions at the role level rather than individual user level.

Next Steps​

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