Role Based Access

React JS Capstone Project: Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

I. Project Overview

This project aims to build a React application demonstrating Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). Users will log in and their access to different features and data will be determined by their assigned role(s). This project will cover authentication, authorization, and UI rendering based on user roles.

II. Core Features

• User Authentication:
  • Login/Registration functionality.
  • Secure password storage (hashing).
  • Session management (using cookies or local storage).
• Role Management:
  • Define roles (e.g., Admin, Editor, Viewer).
  • Assign permissions to each role (e.g., create posts, edit posts, view reports).
  • Ability to assign multiple roles to a user.
• Authorization:
  • Restrict access to components, routes, and data based on user roles.
  • Implement permission checks within components.
  • Handle unauthorized access attempts gracefully (e.g., redirect to a "permission denied" page).
• UI/UX:
  • Dynamic UI rendering based on user roles. Different users see different options.
  • Clear visual cues indicating user permissions.
  • Responsive design.
• Data Management:
  • Simulated data (or integration with a simple backend) to represent resources with access control.

III. Technology Stack

• React JS: Core UI library.
• React Router: For navigation and route protection.
• Context API / Redux (Optional): For state management (user authentication and roles). Context is sufficient for a smaller project.
• Axios / Fetch: For making API requests (if integrating with a backend).
• bcryptjs (or similar): For password hashing.
• JSON Web Tokens (JWT) (Optional): For secure authentication and authorization.
• CSS Modules / Styled Components / Tailwind CSS: For styling.
• Testing Library (Optional): For unit and integration testing.

IV. Project Structure

rbac-app/
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── Auth/
│   │   │   ├── Login.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Register.jsx
│   │   ├── Dashboard/
│   │   │   ├── AdminDashboard.jsx
│   │   │   ├── EditorDashboard.jsx
│   │   │   ├── ViewerDashboard.jsx
│   │   ├── Common/
│   │   │   ├── Header.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Footer.jsx
│   │   ├── ProtectedRoute.jsx  // Component to protect routes
│   ├── context/  // Or Redux store
│   │   ├── AuthContext.jsx
│   │   ├── AuthProvider.jsx
│   ├── services/
│   │   ├── authService.js
│   │   ├── api.js
│   ├── App.jsx
│   ├── index.jsx
│   ├── App.css
├── public/
│   ├── index.html
├── package.json
├── README.md

V. Implementation Details

1. Authentication:

   • Implement Login and Register components.
   • Upon successful login, store user data (including roles) in Context or Redux.
   • Use bcryptjs to hash passwords before storing them (simulated or in a backend).
   • Consider JWT for more robust authentication.

2. Role Definition & Assignment:

   • Define roles as constants or in a configuration file.
   • Associate permissions with each role (e.g., Admin: ['create', 'read', 'update', 'delete']).
   • Store user roles in the authentication context.

3. Authorization:

   • Route Protection: Create a ProtectedRoute component that checks if the user has the required role(s) to access a route. Redirect if unauthorized.
   • Component-Level Authorization: Within components, check user roles before rendering certain elements or allowing specific actions. Use conditional rendering.
   • Permission Checks: Implement functions to check if a user has a specific permission (e.g., hasPermission('edit_posts')).

4. UI Rendering:

   • Dynamically render UI elements based on user roles. For example, only show the "Create Post" button to users with the "Editor" or "Admin" role.
   • Use CSS classes or styled components to visually differentiate access levels.

5. Data Management:

   • Simulate data with access control attributes. For example, each post could have an "author_role" field.
   • Implement logic to filter or hide data based on user roles.

VI. Example Code Snippets

ProtectedRoute.jsx:

import React from 'react';
import { Route, Redirect } from 'react-router-dom';
import { useAuth } from '../context/AuthContext';

function ProtectedRoute({ path, component: Component, requiredRoles }) {
  const { user } = useAuth();

  if (!user) {
    return <Redirect to="/login" />;
  }

  if (requiredRoles && !requiredRoles.some(role => user.roles.includes(role))) {
    return <Redirect to="/permission-denied" />;
  }

  return <Route path={path} component={Component} />;
}

export default ProtectedRoute;

AdminDashboard.jsx:

import React from 'react';

function AdminDashboard() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Admin Dashboard</h1>
      <p>Welcome, Admin! You have full access.</p>
      {/* Admin-specific features and data */}
    </div>
  );
}

export default AdminDashboard;

Conditional Rendering Example:

function MyComponent({ user }) {
  return (
    <div>
      {user.roles.includes('Admin') && <button>Admin Button</button>}
      {user.roles.includes('Editor') && <button>Editor Button</button>}
      <p>This is visible to all users.</p>
    </div>
  );
}

VII. Stretch Goals

• Backend Integration: Connect the frontend to a backend API for user management, role management, and data storage.
• Fine-Grained Permissions: Implement more granular permissions beyond simple role-based access.
• Audit Logging: Log user actions and access attempts for security and auditing purposes.
• Testing: Write unit and integration tests to ensure the RBAC system is working correctly.
• UI Improvements: Enhance the UI/UX with more sophisticated role-based features and visual cues.
• Dynamic Role Assignment: Allow administrators to dynamically assign and revoke roles from users.

VIII. Evaluation Criteria

• Functionality: Does the application correctly implement authentication, role management, and authorization?
• Security: Are passwords stored securely? Is the application protected against unauthorized access?
• Code Quality: Is the code well-organized, readable, and maintainable?
• UI/UX: Is the UI intuitive and user-friendly?
• Completeness: Are all the core features implemented?
• Documentation: Is the project well-documented with clear instructions and explanations?