User access controlled by subroutine attribute.

rlb3 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello monks,

I think I just need someone to smack me on the head and tell me this is a bad idea so I can move on. What I've been thinking about is an Attribute::Handler that controls user access to a subroutine or method. It would look some thing like this:

    read_log('failed');
    slurp_shadow();

    sub read_log :access_list('rlb3','root') { ... }
    sub slurp_shadow :access_root { ... }
[download]

Is this as dumb an idea as I think or is there some hope?

Thanks,

rlb3

Comment on User access controlled by subroutine attribute. Download Code

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Re: User access controlled by subroutine attribute. by chromatic (Archbishop) on Aug 14, 2006 at 21:25 UTC
Perl Hacks has an example of that. I used a similar method to add access control to objects accessible through web services. It worked wonderfully.	[reply]
Re^2: User access controlled by subroutine attribute. by rlb3 (Deacon) on Aug 14, 2006 at 21:39 UTC
Thanks for replying. It's funny, I was listening to your talk on PDX.pm that got me thinking about Attribute::Handler. And I agree that your access control to objects works but I'm having this nagging feeling that using it for user access will have weird problems for users. Like a user getting so far into a program before they get an access denied. That may not be a bad thing. I'm just not sure. rlb3	[reply]
Re^3: User access controlled by subroutine attribute. by ikegami (Patriarch) on Aug 14, 2006 at 21:45 UTC
You could check permissions up front, and check it again at the function level as a failsafe. That way, your users won't normally get "far into a program" before getting an error.	[reply]
Re^4: User access controlled by subroutine attribute. by rlb3 (Deacon) on Aug 14, 2006 at 21:49 UTC
Re^5: User access controlled by subroutine attribute. by gellyfish (Monsignor) on Aug 15, 2006 at 08:06 UTC
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