Unified access control, folder structure, aliases mechanism for all sorts of notes

[x-tropy]

Since any note should belong to a folder, any note can have an aliase, and any note has an access control model, these features in common should be abstracted away in Rails. Some common approaches:

1. Polymorphic Models

Folder Association

Define a Folder model, and make the association polymorphic if multiple models need to belong to folders:

# app/models/folder.rb
class Folder < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :folderables, as: :folderable, dependent: :destroy
end

# app/models/concerns/folderable.rb
module Folderable
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    belongs_to :folderable, polymorphic: true
  end
end

Alias

An alias can also be modeled using a polymorphic association:

# app/models/alias.rb
class Alias < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :aliasable, polymorphic: true
end

# app/models/concerns/aliasable.rb
module Aliasable
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    has_one :alias, as: :aliasable, dependent: :destroy
    accepts_nested_attributes_for :alias
  end
end

Access Control

You can use a role-based model or a simple ownership model to handle access control:

# app/models/access_control.rb
class AccessControl < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :access_controllable, polymorphic: true

  enum access_level: { public: 0, private: 1, restricted: 2 } # Example levels
end

# app/models/concerns/access_controllable.rb
module AccessControllable
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    has_one :access_control, as: :access_controllable, dependent: :destroy
    accepts_nested_attributes_for :access_control
  end
end

2. Applying the Concerns

Use these concerns in your Note model:

# app/models/note.rb
class Note < ApplicationRecord
  include Folderable
  include Aliasable
  include AccessControllable

  # Other note-specific logic...
end

3. Database Migrations

Run migrations to add polymorphic fields and other attributes:

class CreateFolders < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.1]
  def change
    create_table :folders do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

class CreateAliases < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.1]
  def change
    create_table :aliases do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.references :aliasable, polymorphic: true, index: true
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

class CreateAccessControls < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.1]
  def change
    create_table :access_controls do |t|
      t.references :access_controllable, polymorphic: true, index: true
      t.integer :access_level, default: 0
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

4. Usage

Create a note with all these common features:

@folder = Folder.create(name: "Personal Notes")
@note = Note.create(
  title: "My Note",
  folder: @folder,
  alias_attributes: { name: "Shortcut Name" },
  access_control_attributes: { access_level: :restricted }
)

Benefits

• Reusability: The concerns can be reused in other models like Article or Task.
• Decoupling: Separates common logic from the Note model.
• Extensibility: You can easily add new features like tagging or versioning.