Deadbolt 2 is an authorization library for Play 2, and features APIs for both Java- and Scala-based applications. It allows you to apply constraints to controller actions, and to customize template rendering based on the current user.

Here’s a short, fast guide to getting started with the Scala version.

Dependencies

Add the dependency to your build

"be.objectify" %% "deadbolt-scala" % "2.4.2"

Add the Deadbolt module to your Play application

play {
    modules {
        enabled += be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.DeadboltModule
    }
}

If you’re already running your app in activator, don’t forgot to reload the project.

Domain model

Implement the Subject, Role and Permission traits.

  • Subject represents, typically, a user
  • A Role is a single system privilege, e.g. **admin**, **user** and so on. A subject can have zero or more roles.
  • A Permission is a can be used with regular expression matching, e.g. a subject with a permission of `printers.admin` can access a resource constrained to `printers.*`, `*.admin`, etc. A subject can have zero or more permissions.

Hooks

Implement the be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.DeadboltHandler trait. This implementation (or implementations – you can more than one) is used to

  • get the current user – getSubject
  • run a pre-authorization task that can block further execution – beforeAuthCheck
  • handle authorization failure – onAuthFailure
  • provide a hook into the dynamic constraint types – getDynamicResourceHandler

You only need to implement be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.DynamicResourceHandler if you’re planning to use Dynamic or Pattern.CUSTOM constraints. Dynamic constraints are tests implemented entirely by your code. This trait has two functions:

  • isAllowed is used by the Dynamic constraint
  • checkPermission is used by the Pattern constraint when the pattern type is CUSTOM

Implement the be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.HandlerCache trait. This is used by Deadbolt to obtain instances of DeadboltHandler‘s, and has two concepts

  1. A default handler. You can always use a specific handler in a template or controller, but if nothing is specified a well-known instance will be used.
  2. Named handlers.

An example implementation follows, based on the sample app.

@Singleton
class MyHandlerCache extends HandlerCache {
    val defaultHandler: DeadboltHandler = new MyDeadboltHandler

    // HandlerKeys is an user-defined object, containing instances of a case class that extends HandlerKey  
    val handlers: Map[Any, DeadboltHandler] = Map(HandlerKeys.defaultHandler -> defaultHandler,
                                                  HandlerKeys.altHandler -> new MyDeadboltHandler(Some(MyAlternativeDynamicResourceHandler)),
                                                  HandlerKeys.userlessHandler -> new MyUserlessDeadboltHandler)

    // Get the default handler.
    override def apply(): DeadboltHandler = defaultHandler

    // Get a named handler
    override def apply(handlerKey: HandlerKey): DeadboltHandler = handlers(handlerKey)
}

Finally, expose your handlers to Deadbolt. To do this, you will need to create a small module that binds your handler cache by type…

package com.example.modules

import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.cache.HandlerCache
import play.api.inject.{Binding, Module}
import play.api.{Configuration, Environment}
import com.example.security.MyHandlerCache

class CustomDeadboltHook extends Module {
    override def bindings(environment: Environment, configuration: Configuration): Seq[Binding[_]] = Seq(
        bind[HandlerCache].to[MyHandlerCache]
    )
}

…and add it to your application.conf

play {
    modules {
        enabled += be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.DeadboltModule
        enabled += com.example.modules.CustomDeadboltHook
    }
}

Using compile-time dependency injection

If you prefer to wire everything together with compile-time dependency, you don’t need to create a custom module or add DeadboltModule to play.modules.

Instead, dependencies are handled using a custom ApplicationLoader. To make things easier, various Deadbolt components are made available via the be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.DeadboltComponents trait. You will still need to provide a couple of things, such as your HandlerCache implementation, and you’ll then have access to all the usual pieces of Deadbolt.

Here’s an example ApplicationLoader for compile-time DI.

class CompileTimeDiApplicationLoader extends ApplicationLoader  {
  override def load(context: Context): Application 
             = new ApplicationComponents(context).application
}

class ApplicationComponents(context: Context) 
                            extends BuiltInComponentsFromContext(context) 
                            with DeadboltComponents
                            with EhCacheComponents {

  // Define a pattern cache implementation
  // defaultCacheApi is a component from EhCacheComponents
  override lazy val patternCache: PatternCache = new DefaultPatternCache(defaultCacheApi)

  // Declare something required by MyHandlerCache
  lazy val subjectDao: SubjectDao = new TestSubjectDao

  // Specify the DeadboltHandler implementation to use
  override lazy val handlers: HandlerCache = new MyHandlerCache(subjectDao) 

  // everything from here down is application-level
  // configuration, unrelated to Deadbolt, such as controllers, routers, etc
  // ...
}

The components provided by Deadbolt are

  • scalaAnalyzer – constraint logic
  • deadboltActions – for composing actions
  • actionBuilders – for building actions
  • viewSupport – for template constraints
  • patternCache – for caching regular expressions. You need to define this yourself in the application loader, but as in the example above it’s easy to use the default implementation
  • handlers – the implementation of HandlerCache that you provide
  • configuration – the application configuration
  • ecContextProvider – the execution context for concurrent operations. Defaults to scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.global
  • templateFailureListenerProvider – for listening to Deadbolt-related errors that occur when rendering templates. Defaults to a no-operation implementation

Once you’ve defined your ApplicationLoader, you need to add it to your application.conf.

play {
  application {
    loader=com.example.myapp.CompileTimeDiApplicationLoader
  }
}

Whichever injection approach you take, you’re now ready to secure access to controller functions and templates in your Play 2 application.

Controller constraints with the action builder

Using the ActionsBuilders class, you can quickly assemble constraints around your functions. To get started, inject ActionBuilders into your controller.

class ExampleController @Inject() (actionBuilder: ActionBuilders) extends Controller

You now have builders for all the constraint types, which we’ll take a quick look at in a minute. In the following examples I’m using the default handler, i.e. .defaultHandler() but it’s also possible to use a different handler with .key(HandlerKey) or pass in a handler directly using .withHandler(DeadboltHandler).

SubjectPresent and SubjectNotPresent

Sometimes, you don’t need fine-grained checks – you just need to see if there is a user present (or not present).

// DeadboltHandler#getSubject must result in a Some for access to be granted
def someFunctionA = actionBuilder.SubjectPresentAction().defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

// DeadboltHandler#getSubject must result in a None for access to be granted
def someFunctionB = actionBuilder.SubjectNotPresentAction().defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

Restrict

This uses the Subject‘s Roles to perform AND/OR/NOT checks. The values given to the builder must match the Role.name of the subject’s roles.

AND is defined as an Array[String] (or more correctly, String*, OR is a List[Array[String]], and NOT is a rolename with a ! preceding it.

// subject must have the "foo" role 
def restrictedFunctionA = actionBuilder.RestrictAction("foo").defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

// subject must have the "foo" AND "bar" roles 
def restrictedFunctionB = actionBuilder.RestrictAction("foo", "bar").defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

// subject must have the "foo" OR "bar" roles 
def restrictedFunctionC = actionBuilder.RestrictAction(List(Array("foo"), Array("bar"))).defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

Pattern

This uses the Subject‘s Permissions to perform a variety of checks. 

// subject must have a permission with the exact value "admin.printer" 
def permittedFunctionA = actionBuilders.PatternAction("admin.printer", PatternType.EQUALITY).defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

// subject must have a permission that matches the regular expression (without quotes) "(.)*\.printer" 
def permittedFunctionB = actionBuilders.PatternAction("(.)*\.printer", PatternType.REGEX).defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

// the checkPermssion function of the current handler's DynamicResourceHandler will be used.  This is a user-defined test 
def permittedFunctionC = actionBuilders.PatternAction("something arbitrary", PatternType.CUSTOM).defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

Dynamic

The most flexible constraint – this is a completely user-defined constraint that uses DynamicResourceHandler#isAllowed to determine access. 

    def foo = actionBuilder.DynamicAction(name = "someClassifier").defaultHandler() { Ok(accessOk()) }

Controller constraints with action composition

Using the DeadboltActions class, you can compose constrained functions. To get started, inject DeadboltActions into your controller.

    class ExampleController @Inject() (deadbolt: DeadboltActions) extends Controller

You now have functions equivalent to those of the builders mentioned above. In the following examples I’m using the default handler, i.e. no handler is specified, but it’s also possible to use a different handler with handler = <some handler, possibly from the handler cache>.

SubjectPresent and SubjectNotPresent

// DeadboltHandler#getSubject must result in a Some for access to be granted
def someFunctionA = deadbolt.SubjectPresent() {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

// DeadboltHandler#getSubject must result in a None for access to be granted
def someFunctionB = deadbolt.SubjectNotPresent() {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

Restrict

// subject must have the "foo" role 
def restrictedFunctionA = deadbolt.Restrict(List(Array("foo")) {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

// subject must have the "foo" AND "bar" roles 
def restrictedFunctionB = deadbolt.Restrict(List(Array("foo", "bar")) {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

// subject must have the "foo" OR "bar" roles 
def restrictedFunctionC = deadbolt.Restrict(List(Array("foo"), Array("bar"))) {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

Pattern

// subject must have a permission with the exact value "admin.printer" 
def permittedFunctionA = deadbolt.Pattern("admin.printer", PatternType.EQUALITY) {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

// subject must have a permission that matches the regular expression (without quotes) "(.)*\.printer" 
def permittedFunctionB = deadbolt.Pattern("(.)*\.printer", PatternType.REGEX) {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

// the checkPermssion function of the current handler's DynamicResourceHandler will be used.  This is a user-defined test in DynamicResourceHandler#checkPermission 
def permittedFunctionC = deadbolt.Pattern("something arbitrary", PatternType.CUSTOM) {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

Dynamic

The most flexible constraint – this is a completely user-defined constraint that uses DynamicResourceHandler#isAllowed to determine access. 

def foo = deadbolt.Dynamic(name = "someClassifier") {
    Action {
        Ok(accessOk())
    }
}

Template constraints

Using template constraints, you can exclude portions of templates from being generated on the server-side. This is not a client-side DOM manipulation! Template constraints have the same possibilities as controller constraints.

By default, template constraints use the default Deadbolt handler but as with controller constraints you can pass in a specific handler. The cleanest way to do this is to pass the handler into the template and then pass it into the constraints. Another advantage of this approach is you can pass in a wrapped version of the handler that will cache the subject; if you have a lot of constraints in a template, this can yield a significant gain.

One important thing to note here is that templates are blocking, so any Futures used need to be completed for the resuly to be used in the template constraints. As a result, each constraint can take a function that expresses a Long, which is the millisecond value of the timeout. It defaults to 1000 milliseconds, but you can change this globally by setting the deadbolt.scala.view-timeout value in your application.conf.

Each constraint has a variant which allows you to define fallback content. This comes in the format `<constraintName>Or`, e.g.

@subjectPresentOr {
    this is protected
} {
    this will be shown if the constraint blocks the other content
}

SubjectPresent

@import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.views.html.{subjectPresent, subjectPresentOr}

@subjectPresent() {
    This content will be present if handler#getSubject results in a Some 
}

@subjectPresentOr() {
    This content will be present if handler#getSubject results in a Some 
} {
    fallback content
}

SubjectNotPresent

@import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.views.html.{subjectNotPresent, subjectNotPresentOr}

@subjectNotPresent() {
    This content will be present if handler#getSubject results in a None 
}

@subjectNotPresentOr() {
    This content will be present if handler#getSubject results in a None 
} {
    fallback content
}

Restrict

@import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.views.html.{restrict, restrictOr}

@restrict(roles = List(Array("foo", "bar"))) {
    Subject requires the foo role for this to be visible
}

@restrict(List(Array("foo", "bar")) {
     Subject requires the foo AND bar roles for this to be visible
}

@restrict(List(Array("foo"), Array("bar"))) {
     Subject requires the foo OR bar role for this to be visible
}

@restrictOr(List(Array("foo", "bar")) {
     Subject requires the foo AND bar roles for this to be visible
} {
    Subject does not have the necessary roles
}

Pattern

The default pattern type is PatternType.EQUALITY.

@import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.views.html.{pattern, patternOr}

@pattern("admin.printer") {
    Subject must have a permission with the exact value "admin.printer" for this to be visible
}

@pattern("(.)*\.printer", PatternType.REGEX) {
    Subject must have a permission that matches the regular expression (without quotes) "(.)*\.printer" for this to be visible
}

@pattern("something arbitrary", PatternType.CUSTOM) {
    DynamicResourceHandler#checkPermission must result in true for this to be visible
}

@patternOr("admin.printer") {
    Subject must have a permission with the exact value "admin.printer" for this to be visible
} {
    Subject did not have necessary permissions
}

Dynamic

@import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.views.html.{dynamic, dynamicOr}

@dynamic("someName") {
    DynamicResourceHandler#isAllowed must result in true for this to be visible
}

@dynamicOr("someName") {
    DynamicResourceHandler#isAllowed must result in true for this to be visible
} {
    Custom test failed
}

Execution context

By default, all futures are executed in the `scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.global` context. If you want to provide a separate execution context, you can plug it into Deadbolt by implementing the `DeadboltExecutionContextProvider` trait.

import be.objectify.deadbolt.scala.DeadboltExecutionContextProvider

class CustomDeadboltExecutionContextProvider extends DeadboltExecutionContextProvider {
    override def get(): ExecutionContext = ???
}

NB: This provider is invoked twice, once in DeadboltActions and once in ViewSupport.

Once you’ve implemented the provider, you need to declare it in your custom module (see introduction above).

class CustomDeadboltHook extends Module {
    override def bindings(environment: Environment, configuration: Configuration): Seq[Binding[_]] = Seq(
        bind[HandlerCache].to[MyHandlerCache],
        bind[DeadboltExecutionContextProvider].to[CustomDeadboltExecutionContextProvider]
    )
}

What next?

If you want to explore Deadbolt further, you might want to take a look at the book I’m currently writing on it. You can find it at https://leanpub.com/deadbolt-2.

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