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V24.1

Prevent Users from Deleting and Updating Administrative User and Role Objects

  • 3 minutes to read

This topic explains how to create Validation and Conditional Appearance Rules to prevent users from deleting and updating administrative user and role objects. These rules affect all users including administrative users.

This help topic uses the ApplicationUser class generated by the XAF Solution Wizard as well as the EF Core-based PermissionPolicyRole class. In applications based on XPO, use the PermissionPolicyRole class from the DevExpress.Persistent.BaseImpl.PermissionPolicy namespace.

Prevent Deletion of Administrative Users and Roles

  1. Add the Validation Module to the platform-agnostic Module.
  2. Open the Model Editor and navigate to the Application | Validation | Rules node. Right-click this node and add the following RuleCriteria that prevents deletion of the “Admin“ user and “Administrators“ role:

    Rule ID

    TargetContextIDs

    Criteria[1]

    TargetType

    CustomMessageTemplate

    PreventDeleteAdminUser

    Delete

    [UserName] != ‘Admin’

    ApplicationUser (or a custom user type)

    Cannot remove this user.

    PreventDeleteAdminRole

    Delete

    [Name] != ‘Administrators’

    PermissionPolicyRole
    (or a custom role type)

    Cannot remove this role.

    Admin User Validation Rule

    Alternatively, you can open the Model.DesignedDiffs.xafml file as an XML file and add the following elements:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <Application>
      <!-- ... -->
      <Validation>
        <Rules>
          <!-- ... -->
          <RuleCriteria 
            Id="PreventDeleteAdminUser" 
            TargetContextIDs="Delete" 
            Criteria="[UserName] != 'Admin'" 
            TargetType="MySolution.Module.BusinessObjects.ApplicationUser" 
            CustomMessageTemplate="Cannot remove this user." 
            IsNewNode="True" />
          <RuleCriteria 
            Id="PreventDeleteAdminRole" 
            TargetContextIDs="Delete" 
            Criteria="[Name] != 'Administrators'" 
            TargetType="DevExpress.Persistent.BaseImpl.EF.PermissionPolicy.PermissionPolicyRole" 
            CustomMessageTemplate="Cannot remove this role." 
            IsNewNode="True" />
        </Rules>
      </Validation>
    </Application>
    

The following image shows the result:

Prevent Deleting Admin User - Result

Prevent Update of Administrative Users and Roles

  1. Add the Conditional Appearance Module to the platform-agnostic Module.
  2. Open the Model Editor and navigate to the Application | BOModel | MySolution.Module.BusinessObjects | ApplicationUser | AppearanceRules node. Right-click this node and add the following rule that disables editors in the Detail View of the “Admin“ User:

    ID

    Enabled

    Context

    Criteria[1]

    Target Items

    DisableAdminUserEditors

    False

    DetailView

    [UserName] == ‘Admin’

    IsActive; Roles; UserName

    Application User - Appearance Rule

    Alternatively, you can open the Model.DesignedDiffs.xafml file as an XML file and add the following element:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <Application>
      <!-- ... -->
      <BOModel>
        <!-- ... -->
        <Class Name="MySolution.Module.BusinessObjects.ApplicationUser">
          <AppearanceRules>
            <AppearanceRule 
              Id="DisableAdminUserEditors" 
              Enabled="False" 
              Context="DetailView" 
              Criteria="[UserName] == 'Admin'" 
              TargetItems="IsActive; Roles; UserName" 
              IsNewNode="True" />
          </AppearanceRules>
        </Class>
      </BOModel>
    </Application>
    
  3. Open the Model Editor and navigate to the Application | BOModel | DevExpress.Persistent.BaseImpl.EF.PermissionPolicy | PermissionPolicyRole | AppearanceRules node. Right-click this node and add the following rule that disables editors in the Detail View of the “Administrators“ Role:

    ID

    Enabled

    Context

    Criteria

    Target Items

    DisableAdminRoleEditors

    False

    DetailView

    [Name] == ‘Administrators’

    Name; Users; IsAdministrative

    Permission Policy Role - Appearance Rule

    Alternatively, you can open the Model.DesignedDiffs.xafml file as an XML file and add the following element:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <Application>
      <!-- ... -->
      <BOModel>
        <!-- ... -->
        <Class Name="DevExpress.Persistent.BaseImpl.EF.PermissionPolicy.PermissionPolicyUser">
          <AppearanceRules>
            <AppearanceRule 
              Id="DisableAdminRoleEditors" 
              Enabled="False" 
              Context="DetailView" 
              TargetItems="Name; Users; IsAdministrative" 
              Criteria="[Name] == 'Administrators'" 
              IsNewNode="True" />
          </AppearanceRules>
        </Class>
      </BOModel>
    </Application>  
    

The following image shows the result:

Prevent Admin Update - Result

Footnotes
  1. Note that users should have permission to read the PermissionPolicyUser.UserName and PermissionPolicyRole.Name properties. Otherwise, their values are replaced with the “*******“ placeholder and no object matches the specified criteria. Grant permission to read the UserName and Name properties or use Oid/Id instead in criteria (all users have permission to read this property).