Common Terms

Policy

A policy is a set of tests that can be run against data. In PropAuth, these policies are created using the Policy object. One or many checks are then appended to the Policy instance.

For example, a policy that checks values for a user's first and last name my have the checks:

1. Has first name equal to "Chris"
2. Has last name equal to "Cornutt"

In PropAuth these tests are referred to as "checks".

Policy Set

A policy set is pretty much what it sounds like: a set of Policy instances. Creating a policy set allows for easier grouping of multiple policies to make policies more reusable across the application.

Enforcer

The enforcer is the main entry point for the evaluation. It takes in the policy/policies to evaluate and the subject to match those policies against. It then returns a simple pass or fail status as a result of the evaluation.

Resolver

The resolver is used when a "path" is provided to the policy to locate nested data without having to track it down yourself. For example, the path permissions.tests could refer to the tests property on each of the items in the subject's permissions values.

Subject

The subject is the target of the evaluation. This could be an object or an array of data. It's passed into the enforcer at evaluation time and the checks are then run against it.

Context

The context is the environment the evaluation lives in. The context could include the environemnt for the request, the resource being requested, or other related information.