Access Rules

• Feb 02, 2023
• 3 minutes to read

This topic illustrates how to define security permissions for folders and files using a set of folder/file access rules (the FileManagerSettingsPermissions.AccessRules collection). Indexing rules within a collection allows you to control the rules’ priority. A rule with a higher index has a higher priority.

Note

Refer to the Permissions topic for details on how to permit or deny access to individual files and folders or to implement complicated user access logic.

To set up access rules for folders (including their files and child folders) and individual files, use the FileManagerFolderAccessRule and FileManagerFileAccessRule elements. The table below lists the access rule properties that are available for files and folders.

Rule Properties	File Access Rule	Folder Access Rule	Description
Path	-	+	A path to which the rule is applied
Path Pattern	+	-	A pattern for file paths to which an access rule is applied.
Role	+	+	A role to which the rule is applied
Browse	-	+	Permission to view a file/folder
Full Access	+	-	Full access permission for files
Download	+	-	Permission to download a file
Edit	+	+	Permission to edit files/folders
Edit Content	-	+	Permission to edit folder content (files within a folder)
Upload	-	+	Permission to upload files to a folder

The following Rights enumeration values determine permissions:

	Value	Description
Allow	Rights.Allow	The action is allowed within the access rule.
Deny	Rights.Deny	The action is denied within the access rule.
Default	Rights.Default	The action has an identical permission as the current item (file or folder) parent element. It corresponds to the Rights.Allow permission if this value does not exist.

Associating any number of access rules with specific security roles allows you to group related permissions. To associate an access rule with a security role, assign the role’s name to the rule’s Role property. Related access rules should be assigned to matching role names.

Use the FileManagerSettingsPermissions.Role property to enforce any created role on the FileManager. After that, the file manager displays folders and files and provides access permissions to them based on the assigned role.

Note

• FileManager does not allow an end-user to edit a folder that contains files or folders with access denied by Access Rules.
• Define a separate rule (FileManagerFolderAccessRule, FileManagerFileAccessRule) for each operation (Upload, Edit, etc).
• The file or folder’s result access rule depends on the order of adding rules to the FileManagerSettingsPermissions.AccessRules collection.

Online Demo

FileManager - Access Control

Examples

How to deny editing files except JPG files:

C#

@Html.DevExpress().FileManager(
    settings => {
        settings.Name = "fileManager";
        ...
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFileAccessRule { PathPattern = "*.jpg", Edit = Rights.Allow });
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFileAccessRule { PathPattern = "*", Edit = Rights.Deny });
    }
).BindToFolder(Model).GetHtml()

How to deny browsing the ‘Admin’ folder:

C#

@Html.DevExpress().FileManager(
    settings => {
        settings.Name = "fileManager";
        ...
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFolderAccessRule { Path = "Admin", Browse = Rights.Deny });        
    }
).BindToFolder(Model).GetHtml()

How to deny editing the ‘ReadOnly’ folder:

C#

@Html.DevExpress().FileManager(
    settings => {
        settings.Name = "fileManager";
        ...
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFolderAccessRule { Path = "ReadOnly", Edit = Rights.Deny });
    }
).BindToFolder(Model).GetHtml()

How to deny uploading any folders except ‘UploadFolder’ folder:

C#

@Html.DevExpress().FileManager(
    settings => {
        settings.Name = "fileManager";
        ...
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFolderAccessRule { Path = "", Upload = Rights.Deny });
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFolderAccessRule { Path = "UploadFolder", Upload = Rights.Allow });
    }
).BindToFolder(Model).GetHtml()

How to deny non-admin users permission to edit files:

C#

@Html.DevExpress().FileManager(
    settings => {
        settings.Name = "fileManager";
        ...
        settings.SettingsPermissions.Role = User.IsAdmin ? "Admin" : string.Empty;
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFolderAccessRule { Path = "", Edit = Rights.Deny });
        settings.SettingsPermissions.AccessRules.Add(new FileManagerFolderAccessRule { Path = "", Edit = Rights.Allow, Role = "Admin" }); 
    }
).BindToFolder(Model).GetHtml()