Scopes

This is a small collection of utility functions for AuthX scopes. These scopes are human-readable, fully OAuth2-compatible, and support both pattern matching and set algebra.

Anatomy of a Scope | Installation | API | Development

Anatomy of a Scope

Scopes are composed of 3 domains, separated by the : character:

billing:customer.abc:read.basic
|_____| |__________| |________|
   |         |           |
 realm    context      action

Each domain contains segments, separated by the . character.

Scope Literals

A scope literal – the form a scope always takes in a token, a grant, or on an authorization – is fully defined and ready to be used by a resource.

Segments in scope literals can be:

• The "single any" symbol: *
• The "multiple any" symbol: **
• A "substitution segment" matching the pattern: /[a-zA-Z0-9_-]*/

For example, these are all valid scope literals:

billing:customer.abc:read.basic
billing:customer.*:*.basic
billing:**:read.*

Scope Templates

A scope template is a contravariant (a superset) of a scope literal. In addition to the values allowed in the segments of a scope literal, the segments of a scope template may contain:

• A "template segment" matching the pattern: /^\{[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+\}$/

For example, these are all valid scope templates:

billing:customer.{current_user_id}:read.basic
authx:v2.authorization..*.{current_client_id}..{current_grant_id}..{current_user_id}:**

The purpose of a scope template is to describe a scope where a value is not currently known, but will be known at the time of grant creation or authorization creation. Scope templates are never passed in a token or authorization.

Parameterized Scope

A parameterized scope is a bivariant (a superset in one way, and a subset in another) of a scope literal. In addition to the values allowed in the segments of a scope literal, the segments of a parameterized scope may contain:

• A "parameterized segment" matching the pattern: /^\([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+\)$/

A domain in a parameterized scope must not contain the "multiple any" symbol on both sides of a "parameterized segment" as the position of the "parameterized segment" would become ambiguous.

For example, these are all valid parameterized scopes:

billing:customer.(user_id):read.basic
authx:v2.authorization..*.(client_id)..(grant_id)..(current_user_id):**
authx:v2.**.(client_id)..(grant_id)..(current_user_id):**

However, the following is invalid:

authx:v2.**.(client_id)..**:**

The purpose of a parameterized scope is to extract a value from a particular scope literal. This is useful for resources, where knowing a value before starting an operation is preferable to checking the scope after an operation has begun. For example, an application may want to know all possible values of user_id given the parameterized scope billing:customer.(user_id):read.basic BEFORE querying a database.

Parameterized scopes are never passed in a token or authorization.

Parameterized Scope Template

Certain functions accept a parameterized scope template, allowing both "parameterized segments" and "template segments".

Installation

Install with npm install --save @authx/scopes

API

Please see the tests for complete examples.

isValidScope

• isValidScope(scope: string): boolean
  isValidScope(collection: string[]): boolean
  

Validate that a scope is correctly formatted.

import { validate } from "@authx/scopes";

validate("realm:context.identifier:action.**");
// => true

validate("realm:context.{identifier}:action");
// => false

validate("realm:context.***:action");
// => false

isValidScopeTemplate

• isValidScope(scope: string): boolean
  isValidScope(collection: string[]): boolean
  

Validate that a scope template is correctly formatted.

import { validate } from "@authx/scopes";

validate("realm:context.identifier:action.**");
// => true

validate("realm:context.{identifier}:action");
// => true

validate("realm:context.***:action");
// => false

normalize

• normalize(scope: string): string
  normalize(collection: string[]): string[]
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if the scope is invalid.

Normalize a scope into its simplest representation.

import { normalize } from "@authx/scopes";

normalize("realm:**.**:action");
// => 'realm:*.**:action'

simplify

• simplify(collection: string[]): string[]
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in collection are invalid.

Simplify the collection of scopes in collection by omiting any scopes that are a made redundant by another scope in the collection. All scopes in the returned collection are normalized.

import { simplify } from "@authx/scopes";

simplify(["realm:resource.*:action", "realm:**:action"]);
// => ["realm:**:action"]

isEqual

• isEqual(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): boolean
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Check whether scopeOrCollectionA and scopeOrCollectionB are the same, ignoring redundant scopes.

import { getIntersection } from "@authx/scopes";

getIntersection(["realm:**:*"], ["realm:**:action", "realm:**:*"]);
// => true

isSuperset

• isSuperset(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): boolean
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Check whether scopeOrCollectionA is equal to, or a superset of scopeOrCollectionB. This is appropriate for checking if a user can perform a particular action.

import { isSuperset } from "@authx/scopes";

isSuperset(["realm:**:*"], ["realm:**:action", "realm:**:*"]);
// => true

isStrictSuperset

• isStrictSuperset(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): boolean
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Check whether scopeOrCollectionA is a strict superset of scopeOrCollectionB.

import { isStrictSuperset } from "@authx/scopes";

isStrictSuperset(["realm:**:*"], ["realm:**:action", "realm:**:*"]);
// => false

isSubset

• isSubset(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): boolean
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Check whether scopeOrCollectionA is equal to, or a subset of scopeOrCollectionB.

import { isSubset } from "@authx/scopes";

isSubset(["realm:**:action", "realm:**:*"], ["realm:**:*"]);
// => true

isStrictSubset

• isStrictSubset(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): boolean
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Check whether scopeOrCollectionA is a strict subset of scopeOrCollectionB.

import { isStrictSubset } from "@authx/scopes";

isStrictSubset(["realm:**:action", "realm:**:*"], ["realm:**:*"]);
// => false

getIntersection

• getIntersection(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): string[]
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Get the intersection of scopeOrCollectionA and scopeOrCollectionB, returning a collection of scopes that represent all intersections, or every ability common to both inputs.

import { getIntersection } from "@authx/scopes";

getIntersection(["realm:resource.*:action.*"], ["realm:**:action.read"]);
// => ["realm:resource.*:action.read"]

getDifference

• getDifference(collectionA: string[], collectionB: string[]): string[]
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in collectionA or collectionB are invalid.

Get the relative complement (or set difference) of collectionA and collectionB, returning a collection of scopes present in collectionB but NOT collectionA. The returned collection contains normalized scopes as written in collectionB, even if there is an intersection between the returned scope and collectionA.

import { getDifference } from "@authx/scopes";

getDifference(
  ["realm:resource.*:action.*"],
  ["realm:resource.foo:action.read", "realm:other:action.read"],
);
// => ["realm:other:action.read"]

hasIntersection

• hasIntersection(scopeOrCollectionA: string[] | string, scopeOrCollectionB: string[] | string): string[]
  

• throws InvalidScopeError if any scopes in scopeOrCollectionA or scopeOrCollectionB are invalid.

Check whether scopeOrCollectionA and scopeOrCollectionB intersect. This is useful when checking if a user can perform any subset of the actions represented by the subject scope.

import { hasIntersection } from "@authx/scopes";

hasIntersection(["realm:resource.*:action.*"], ["realm:**:action.read"]);
// => true

Development

Scripts

These scripts can be run using npm run <script>.

format

Use prettier to format the code in this package.

lint

Check the contents of this package against prettier and eslint rules.

prepare

Build the files from /src to the /dist directory with optimizations.

prepare:development

Build the files from /src to the /dist directory, and re-build as changes are made to source files.

test

Run all tests from the /dist directory.

test:development

Run all tests from the /dist directory, and re-run a test when it changes.

Files

/src

This holds the source code for the library.

/dist

The compiled and bundled code ends up here for distribution. This is ignored by git.