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Authorization Hooks For Frontend Developers

The @repo/auth-hooks package provides React hooks for authorization in zopio applications. It works in conjunction with the authorization runner to provide a seamless way to check user permissions in React components.

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Installation

pnpm add @repo/auth-hooks

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Usage

The main hook provided by this package is useAccess, which allows you to check if a user has permission to perform a specific action on a resource. 
import { useAccess } from '@repo/auth-hooks';

function MyComponent() {
  const { can, reason, loading } = useAccess({
    resource: 'posts',
    action: 'edit',
    record: { id: 1, authorId: 'user-123' },
    context: { user: { id: 'user-123', role: 'editor' } }
  });

  if (loading) {
    return <div>Checking permissions...</div>;
  }

  if (!can) {
    return <div>Access denied: {reason}</div>;
  }

  return <div>You have permission to edit this post</div>;
}

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API Reference

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useAccess

A React hook that evaluates access permissions for resources.

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Parameters

The hook accepts a single object with the following properties:
PropertyTypeDescriptionRequired
resourcestringThe resource being accessed (e.g., ‘posts’, ‘users’)Yes
actionstringThe action being performed (e.g., ‘create’, ‘read’, ‘update’, ‘delete’)Yes
fieldstringOptional field within the resourceNo
recordanyThe record data being accessedNo
contextanyContext information for evaluation (e.g., current user, roles)Yes

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Return Value

The hook returns an object with the following properties:
PropertyTypeDescription
canbooleanIndicates if access is allowed
reasonstringOptional explanation for the access decision
loadingbooleanIndicates if the access check is in progress

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Integration with Authorization Runner

The useAccess hook internally uses the evaluateAccess function from the @repo/auth-runner package to perform the actual permission check. This ensures consistency between your React components and other parts of your application.

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Example: Conditional Rendering

import { useAccess } from '@repo/auth-hooks';

function AdminPanel() {
  const { can, loading } = useAccess({
    resource: 'admin',
    action: 'access',
    context: { user: getCurrentUser() }
  });

  if (loading) {
    return <LoadingSpinner />;
  }

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Admin Panel</h1>
      {can ? (
        <AdminControls />
      ) : (
        <AccessDenied />
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

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Example: Disabling UI Elements

import { useAccess } from '@repo/auth-hooks';

function EditButton({ documentId, authorId }) {
  const { can, loading } = useAccess({
    resource: 'documents',
    action: 'edit',
    record: { id: documentId, authorId },
    context: { user: getCurrentUser() }
  });

  return (
    <button 
      disabled={loading || !can} 
      onClick={handleEdit}
    >
      Edit Document
    </button>
  );
}

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Best Practices

  1. Use with Server Components: For Next.js applications, consider using the authorization runner directly in Server Components and the hooks in Client Components.
  2. Caching Results: The hook automatically memoizes results based on the parameters, but consider implementing additional caching for complex authorization rules.
  3. Error Handling: Always handle the loading state to provide a good user experience while permissions are being checked.
  4. Combine with Authentication: Use alongside your authentication solution to create a complete access control system.