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Best way to store permissions for the user account?

I have permission records that are tied to each account in my application. Each account can have one or multiple permission records based on account type. Here is example:

<cfquery name="qryUserPerm" datasource="#Application.dsn#">
SELECT AccessType, AccessLevel, State, City, Building
FROM Permissions
WHERE AccountID = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#trim(session.AccountID)#">
</cfquery>


Query above will produce data like this for one of the accounts:

RecID AccountID AccessType AccessLevel State City Building
70 285A637D82B9 F B NY New York 8010
71 285A637D82B9 F B NY New York 5412
73 285A637D82B9 F B NY New York 6103
74 285A637D82B9 F B NY New York 3106


As you can see above this account have 4 records assigned to them. Access Type can be Full F or View Only V. Access Level can be State 'S', City 'C' or Building 'B'. User can have only one access level assigned to them at the time, so for example there is no situation where user can have assigned City and State level. My question is what would be the best way to organize the data from the query for specific access level? In this case I have to merge 4 records in list or array. State level only can have one permission record assigned, City and Building can have multiple records. Here is example of what I have:

F

V

<cfset local.permissionType = "">
<cfset local.permissionLevel = "">
<cfset local.permissionList = "">

<cfloop query="qryUserPerm">
<cfif qryUserPerm.AccessLevel EQ "S">
<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = listAppend(permissionList, "", ",")>
<cfelseif qryUserPerm.AccessLevel EQ "C">
<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = listAppend(permissionList, qryUserPerm.City, ",")>
<cfelseif qryUserPerm.AccessLevel EQ "B">
<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = listAppend(permissionList, qryUserPerm.Building, ",")>
<cfelse>
<cfset local.permissionType = "">
<cfset local.permissionLevel = "">
<cfset local.permissionList = listAppend(permissionList, "", ",")>
</cfif>
</cfloop>


It seems redundant to keep permissionType and permissionLevel inside of the loop but I do not know better way currently to avoid that. Also this makes process very dificult in case when I have to compare permission list. I would have to run this same process and build the list in order to compare that with Session.premissionList in case where currently logged user change their permissions. Is there any way to merge these records with SQL? Or this approach is better option?

permissionType

permissionLevel

Session.premissionList

3 Answers
3

I would be tempted to remove the loop. I am thinking that this may make things a little simpler.

<cfset local.permissionType = "">
<cfset local.permissionLevel = "">
<cfset local.permissionList = "">


<cfif qryUserPerm.AccessLevel EQ "S">
<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = qryUserPerm.State>
<cfelseif qryUserPerm.AccessLevel EQ "C">
<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = ListRemoveDuplicates(ValueList(permissionList,qryUserPerm.City))>
<cfelseif qryUserPerm.AccessLevel EQ "B">
<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = ListRemoveDuplicates(ValueList(permissionList,qryUserPerm.Building))>
</cfif>


And, if you want to compare the lists in future for equality, you may want to use:

<cfset local.permissionList = ListSort(local.permissionList,"textnocase","asc")>


valueList()

cfscript

You could trim down the code by using CASE to merge everything into a single column, based on the Access Level.

SELECT AccessType
, AccessLevel
, CASE AccessLevel
WHEN 'C' THEN City
WHEN 'B' THEN Building
WHEN 'S' THEN State
END AS AccessValue
FROM Permissions
WHERE AccountID = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#session.AccountID#">


Then build your list from that column. No cfif's needed.

<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = valueList(qryUserPerm.AccessValue)>


You could also build the CSV list in SQL only, but not sure it's worth it in this scenario, since it's just as easy to build in CF.

SELECT TOP 1 AccessType
, AccessLevel
, STUFF(( SELECT ','+ l.AccessValue
FROM ( SELECT CASE AccessLevel
WHEN 'C' THEN City
WHEN 'B' THEN Building
WHEN 'S' THEN State
END AS AccessValue
FROM Permissions l
WHERE l.AccountID = p.AccountID
) l
GROUP BY l.AccessValue
FOR XML PATH('')
),1,1,'') AS PermissionsList
FROM Permissions p
WHERE AccountID = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#session.AccountID#">


Anyway, using the above the query will return everything you need in a single row: AccessType, AccessLevel and csv list of permissions.

<cfset local.permissionType = qryUserPerm.AccessType>
<cfset local.permissionLevel = qryUserPerm.AccessLevel>
<cfset local.permissionList = qryUserPerm.PermissionsList>


This can be done in SQL itself, which may be more performant than manipulating the data in code.

One issue with the data is that the State, City and Building columns need to be unpivoted to then be turned into a comma-delimited list.

State

City

Building

Since you are using SQL 2008, you have access to the functionality you need.

The query is: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!18/0f4f7/1

; WITH cte AS (
SELECT
AccountID, AccessType, AccessLevel
, CASE AccessLevel
WHEN 'S' THEN State
WHEN 'C' THEN City
WHEN 'B' THEN Building
END AS Permissions
FROM Permissions
WHERE AccountID =
<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#session.AccountID#">
/* Dynamic variable here */
)
SELECT DISTINCT AccountID, AccessType, AccessLevel
, CASE
WHEN AccessLevel = 'S' THEN Permissions
ELSE LEFT(ca.pl, COALESCE(LEN(ca.pl),0)-1)
END AS PermissionList
FROM cte
CROSS APPLY (
SELECT p.Permissions + ', '
FROM cte p
WHERE p.AccountID = cte.AccountID
AND p.AccessType = cte.AccessType
AND p.AccessLevel = cte.AccessLevel
FOR XML PATH('')
) ca (pl) ;


I start with a CTE to build out the "unpivoted" list of Permissions based on the AccessLevel. If this can be put in a SQL View, you can just leave out the WHERE statement here and just call it when you call the View. A View would be my preference, if you can get it into your database.

Permissions

AccessLevel

WHERE

After I have the CTE, I just select the base columns (AccountID, AccessType and AccessLevel, and then I CROSS APPLY a comma-delimited list of the Permissions. I use FOR XML PATH('') to build that comma-delimited list.

AccountID

AccessType

AccessLevel

CROSS APPLY

Permissions

FOR XML PATH('')

If this is able to be converted to a View, it would be a simple

<cfquery name="qryUserPerm" datasource="#Application.dsn#">
SELECT AccessType, AccessLevel, PermissionList
FROM myPermissionsView
WHERE AccountID = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#trim(session.AccountID)#">
</cfquery>


If not, you'll have to try running the above full query inside the cfquery tag.

cfquery

This should give you back a dataset like:

| AccessType | AccessLevel | PermissionList |
|------------|-------------|------------------------|
| F | B | 8010, 5412, 6103, 3106 |


You only have one result to work with and won't have to loop.

View

case

view

WHERE AccountID = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#session.AccountID#">

cfquery

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