Customizing a KiiObject's ACL

You can change the access control applied to a KiiObject by setting its ACL.

KiiObject ACL entries

A KiiObject ACL entry is composed of an action and a subject:

  • Action

    This item defines "what" the target user/group/thing can execute.

    Action Representation in code * What the target user/group/thing can execute
    READ_EXISTING_OBJECT KiiACLObjectActionRead Read the KiiObject.
    WRITE_EXISTING_OBJECT KiiACLObjectActionWrite Update and delete the KiiObject.

    * These symbols are defined in the KiiACLAction enumeration and can be specified like KiiACLAction.KiiACLObjectActionRead.

    Note: The"KiiACLBucketActionReadObjects" action set to a bucket's ACL allows the subject to unconditionally read all KiiObjects in the bucket, even if they are not permitted the "KiiACLObjectActionRead" action on the KiiObjects in the bucket. For understanding how the action works, see ACL Customization Examples.

  • Subject

    This item defines "who" can execute.

    Subject Who can execute the designated action?
    KiiUser instance The specified user.
    KiiGroup instance The members of the specified group.
    KiiThing instance The specified thing.
    KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser Any authenticated users.
    KiiAnonymousUser Anonymous users.

    See Subject for the definition of the "Any authenticated users" and "Anonymous users".

Managing a KiiObject's ACL

You can add and delete an ACL entry in a KiiObject's ACL. You can also get a list of ACL entries.

Adding a KiiObject ACL entry

Here is an example of permitting the KiiACLObjectActionRead action to KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser.

  • // Instantiate a KiiObject.
var object = KiiObject.objectWithURI("Set the URI of an existing KiiObject here");

// Create an ACL entry.
var entry = KiiACLEntry.entryWithSubject(new KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser(), KiiACLAction.KiiACLObjectActionRead);

// Instantiate the ACL of the KiiObject.
var acl = object.objectACL();

// Set the ACL entry to the ACL.
acl.putACLEntry(entry);

// Save the ACL to the server.
acl.save().then(
  function(theACL) {
    // Do something.
  }
).catch(
  function(error) {
    var theACL = error.target;
    var errorString = error.message;
    // Handle the error.
  }
);
  • // Instantiate a KiiObject.
var object = KiiObject.objectWithURI("Set the URI of an existing KiiObject here");

// Create an ACL entry.
var entry = KiiACLEntry.entryWithSubject(new KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser(), KiiACLAction.KiiACLObjectActionRead);

// Instantiate the ACL of the KiiObject.
var acl = object.objectACL();

// Set the ACL entry to the ACL.
acl.putACLEntry(entry);

// Save the ACL to the server.
acl.save({
  success: function(theACL) {
    // Do something.
  },
  failure: function(theACL, errorString) {
    // Handle the error.
  }
});
  1. Create a KiiACL instance of the KiiObject by calling the acl() method.
  2. Create a KiiACLEntry instance and pass it as the argument of the putACLEntry() method. Here, a KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser instance is specified as the ACL entry's subject so as to permit the action to any authenticated users. If you set a KiiAnonymousUser instance as the subject instead, you can permit the same action to anonymous users. If you set a specific KiiUser instance, the action will be permitted to that user instance.
  3. Call the save() method to send the request for updating the ACL to Kii Cloud.

See KiiACLEntry for more information about how you can specify other subjects like users and groups.

Deleting a KiiObject ACL entry

To delete an ACL entry, create a KiiACLEntry instance with its grant set to false and save it. The ACL entry will be deleted from the server.

The following example deletes the ACL entry created in the previous sample code.

  • // Instantiate a KiiObject.
var object = KiiObject.objectWithURI("Set the URI of an existing KiiObject here");

// Create an ACL entry.
var entry = KiiACLEntry.entryWithSubject(new KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser(), KiiACLAction.KiiACLObjectActionRead);
entry.setGrant(false);

// Instantiate the ACL of the KiiObject.
var acl = object.objectACL();

// Set the ACL entry to the ACL.
acl.putACLEntry(entry);

// Save the ACL to the server.
acl.save().then(
  function(theACL) {
    // Do something.
  }
).catch(
  function(error) {
    var theACL = error.target;
    var errorString = error.message;
    // Handle the error.
  }
);
  • // Instantiate a KiiObject.
var object = KiiObject.objectWithURI("Set the URI of an existing KiiObject here");

// Create an ACL entry.
var entry = KiiACLEntry.entryWithSubject(new KiiAnyAuthenticatedUser(), KiiACLAction.KiiACLObjectActionRead);
entry.setGrant(false);

// Instantiate the ACL of the KiiObject.
var acl = object.objectACL();

// Set the ACL entry to the ACL.
acl.putACLEntry(entry);

// Save the ACL to the server.
acl.save({
  success: function(theACL) {
    // Do something.
  },
  failure: function(theACL, errorString) {
    // Handle the error.
  }
});

Note that the removeACLEntry() method of the KiiACL just deletes an ACL entry from the local modification list. The method does not delete an ACL entry set on the server. In the above sample code, we first register a request to remove the KiiACLObjectActionRead action from acl on the client and then execute the save() method to reflect the request on the server. If you execute the removeACLEntry() method, it would remove the request from the ACL modification list, but not from the ACL on the server.

Getting a KiiObject's ACL

You can get the ACL set on a KiiObject. Even if you have not set any ACL entries in a KiiObject's ACL, you can get its default ACL.

Here is the sample code for getting a list of ACL entries as an array.

  • // Instantiate a KiiObject.
var object = KiiObject.objectWithURI("Set the URI of an existing KiiObject here");

// Instantiate the ACL of the KiiObject.
var acl = object.objectACL();

// Get the ACL entries from the server.
acl.listACLEntries().then(
  function(params) {
    var theACL = params[0];
    var theEntries = params[1];
    for(var i = 0; i < theEntries.length; i++) {
      var action = theEntries[i].getAction();
      var subject = theEntries[i].getSubject();
      // Check the ACL entry.
    }
  }
).catch(
  function(error) {
    var theACL = error.target;
    var errorString = error.message;
    // Handle the error.
  }
);
  • // Instantiate a KiiObject.
var object = KiiObject.objectWithURI("Set the URI of an existing KiiObject here");

// Instantiate the ACL of the KiiObject.
var acl = object.objectACL();

// Get the ACL entries from the server.
acl.listACLEntries({
  success: function(theACL, theEntries) {
    for(var i = 0; i < theEntries.length; i++) {
      var action = theEntries[i].getAction();
      var subject = theEntries[i].getSubject();
      // Check the ACL entry.
    }
  },
  failure: function(theACL, errorString) {
    // Handle the error.
  }
});
  1. Create a KiiACL instance of the KiiObject by executing the acl() method.
  2. Call the listAclEntries() method to get the KiiObject's ACL as an array of the KiiACLEntry instances.
  3. Parse through each ACL entry in the array.

action will have one of the KiiACLAction, and subject will have the subject of the action. See the lists in KiiObject ACL entries for more information.

Trying to set an existing ACL entry will give you an error. By checking existing ACL entries beforehand as shown in this sample code, you can find which ACL entries should be set.

Troubleshooting

  • I got an error when I run my application multiple times

    The ACL entry should be registered just once (e.g., in the initialization) and should not be registered again in the next run.

    If you try to save an existing ACL entry, you will get an error. If your application runs the same ACL entry registration flow every time, therefore, you will get an error because the application attempts to re-register an already existing ACL entry.

    When you are adding multiple ACL entries, the entry registration is handled one by one. If an error occurs before all entries are registered, some entries will remain unregistered. To recover from such a situation, you will first need to get a list of the existing ACL entries, remove the duplicating ACL entries from the ACL modification list, and then register remaining entries. See Getting a KiiObject's ACL to learn how to get the list of the existing ACL entries.

  • I cannot delete an ACL entry

    You cannot delete default ACL entries applied to scope owners and KiiObject creators. See Cannot delete default ACL entries of scope owners and creators for more details.