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Table of Contents

Introduction

FOLIO offers an integrated permissions system that is configurable and very granular.

Each app provides its own permissions that are defined in the app's front-end and back-end modules.

FOLIO users can also build their own permission sets (groups of permissions) through the FOLIO UI, and assign those permission sets to FOLIO users. This can be very helpful in setting up individual system roles configured to individual library needs.

Naming Conventions

Permissions are named to indicate what a FOLIO user with the permission can do within the app.

Permissions are named in the following format:

[Appname]: [What the user can do]
Settings ([Appname]): [What the user can do]

Examples of permissions (current to Honeysuckle - Q32020):

Tip

title	That permission isn't named that way...

If a permission is not named following the standard naming convention, the most likely reason is that it is currently under development.

FOLIO product owners work with developers to request specific permissions be added to the code, and also to ensure the permissions are eventually named correctly.

If you have questions about a particular app permission, reaching out to the associated SIG or product owner is the right thing to do!

Permission example (screenshot)	What this permission does
	This permission applies to the Users app. The name describes what the user can do - if they have this permission, they can go to a user record in the Users app and view service points assigned to that user.
	This permission applies to the ERM Comparisons app (new to Honeysuckle. A user with this permission can create jobs to run in the app.

Key Terminology Definitions

CRUD: CRUD stands for "Create, Read, Update and Delete." You may see it used as a shortcut terminology in permissions discussions.
- Most FOLIO permissions are CRUD permissions - they give you the ability to create, read, update and/or delete FOLIO records.
Permission Set: A permission set in FOLIO is one permission that includes one or more subpermissions.
- Permission sets can be created in the FOLIO system by a developer.
- They can also be created by individual libraries in Settings → Users, gathering up multiple named UI permissions into one grouping for assignment to staff FOLIO users.
Visible Permission: A visible permission is one that you can see in the list of permissions in the UI. They can be assigned to patrons directly, and/or you can add them to a permission set through Settings → Users → General → Permission Sets.
Hidden or Invisible Permission: An invisible permission is hidden from the FOLIO user interface and is not usually assigned directly to a FOLIO user.
- Invisible permissions are commonly part of a backend module and used in permission sets that are defined in the code and appear in the UI as visible permissions that can be assigned directly to patrons.

Tip

title	Try not to worry about terminology

The difference between a permission and a permission set can be very confusing. What a developer calls a permission may actually be a permission set, which looks different in the UI from the permission set that you can build in Settings → Users to assign to individual FOLIO users.

In practice, most community members use the term permissions when it could actually be a permission set. For most library workflows, distinguishing between the two terms doesn't really matter, and they are used interchangeably.

How to find permission information in a FOLIO module

It can be helpful, if you are not sure what a permission is intended to do, to examine information about the permission in the associated code in the FOLIO github repository. The FOLIO Source-code Map lists all modules, the module's GitHub README link takes you to the GitHub start page of the module.

How to find this information can vary by module, but general guidelines are as follows:

For a UI module (named starting with UI-), look for a file called package.json in the repository.
- Example: the permissions for the ui-inventory module are at the top level of the module in a file called package.json
- Example: the permissions for the ui-finance module are at the top level of the module in a file called package.json
For a backend module (generally starting with MOD-), look for a file called moduledescriptor.json or ModuleDescriptor-template.json in the repository, many modules put it into the descriptors folder. Click "Go to file" button (or make use of the keyboard shortcut t) to search for the file name.
- Example: the permissions for the mod-circulation-storage module are in the descriptors folder in a file called ModuleDescriptor-template.json
- Example: the permissions for the mod-source-record-storage module are in the descriptors folder in a file called ModuleDescriptor-template.json
- Example: the permissions for the mod-agreements module are in the service/src/main/okapi folder in a file called ModuleDescriptor-template.json

Permissions are usually defined towards the bottom of the descriptor file. Here are some examples of what a permission definition looks like.

Code Block

theme	FadeToGrey
title	Backend module, Simple permission with no subpermissions
linenumbers	true
collapse	true

{
	"permissionName": "customreports.item.put",
	"displayName": "custom reports item get",
	"description": "Edit an custom report"
}

Code Block

theme	FadeToGrey
title	Backend module, permission set
linenumbers	true
collapse	true

 {
	"permissionName": "eusage.all",
	"displayName": "eusage all",
	"description": "All permissions for the mod-erm-usage module. An admin should get all permission, e.g. to edit aggregators.",
	"subPermissions": [
		"usagedataproviders.collection.get",
		"usagedataproviders.item.get",
		"usagedataproviders.item.post",
		"usagedataproviders.item.put",
		"usagedataproviders.item.delete",
		"aggregatorsettings.collection.get",
		"aggregatorsettings.item.get",
		"aggregatorsettings.item.post",
		"aggregatorsettings.item.put",
		"aggregatorsettings.item.delete",
		"counterreports.collection.get",
		"counterreports.item.get",
		"counterreports.item.post",
		"counterreports.item.put",
		"counterreports.item.delete",
		"customreports.collection.get",
		"customreports.item.get",
		"customreports.item.post",
		"customreports.item.put",
		"customreports.item.delete",
		"erm-usage.files.item.get",
		"erm-usage.files.item.post",
		"erm-usage.files.item.delete"
	]
}

Code Block

theme	FadeToGrey
title	UI Module: Permission Set, Visible = True
linenumbers	true
collapse	true

 {
	"permissionName": "ui-inventory.settings.loantypes",
	"displayName": "Settings (Inventory): Create, edit, delete loan types",
	"subPermissions": [
		"inventory-storage.loan-types.collection.get",
		"inventory-storage.loan-types.item.delete",
		"inventory-storage.loan-types.item.get",
		"inventory-storage.loan-types.item.post",
		"inventory-storage.loan-types.item.put",
		"settings.inventory.enabled"
	],
	"visible": true
},

Things to note:

A permission or permission set must have the attribute "visible": true in order to
- Show up in the Users App for the assign permissions workflow;
- Show up in Settings → Users → Permission sets to be assigned to a user-created permission set for a particular FOLIO tenant.

Where can I find examples of permission sets that correspond to library staff roles?

There are a few places you can find examples of permission sets that correspond to library roles - some that implementing libraries have come up with, and some that developers / POs have come up with.

Implementing libraries have shared their permission sets here: Sample Permissions Sets from Implementing Institutions

In the FOLIO hosted reference environments, developers and POs have configured sample permission sets corresponding to roles. They have names like "acq-admin", "circ-student", etc. etc.

To see the list of what permissions are in each of those sets, you can click to view in the FOLIO environment, or you can look it up directly in the FOLIO github space, here: https://github.com/folio-org/folio-tools/tree/master/add-users/psets

Those permission sets correspond to user accounts in the hosted reference environments, so you can log in and see how they actually work. The username and password are the same as the name of the permission set. So, for example, to see how the permission set circ-observer works, you can log into https://folio-snapshot.dev.folio.org with

username circ-observer
password circ-observer

Frequent Workflows

Deprecated Permissions - what are they?

Info
Note that this section is being drafted and information here may not be correct.

Occasionally, developers may need to rename, remove, or update permissions during a module upgrade. This means that you may see permissions that have changed or should no longer be used marked as "deprecated" in the FOLIO user interface, like this:

Example:

Suppose Zhang San is a developer who creates a new app to manage their library's bookmobile service. San calls the app "Bookmobile"

In the first version of the app, they just have a permission that allows the FOLIO user to schedule a bookmobile visit. It might look something like this:

Code Block

language	js
theme	FadeToGrey
linenumbers	true
collapse	true

{
	"permissionName": "ui-bookmobile.schedule",
	"displayName": "BookMobile: Schedule Visit",
	"description": "User can schedule a Bookmobile visit",
	"subPermissions": [
		"module.bookmobile.enabled",
		"bookmobile.item.get",
		"bookmobile.collection.get",
		...
		...
		...
	],
	"visible": true
}

As they continue to develop the app, San decides to add additional features and rename the app from "BookMobile" to "Outreach". As they add new features, they rename the old permissions to remove the bookmobile references.

So in a new version of the app,one permission set to manage all access in the user interface to the bookmobile app. That permission is named

ui-bookmobile.all

and in the UI, the name of the permission shows up as

Bookmobile: All Permissions.

As San continues development, they break down the "all" permission set into individual blocks that better reflect how the app is used, and they decide they no longer want the "all" permission set to be available. So, when they introduce module version 2.0, they remove ui-bookmobile.all as a permission.

When San's hosting provider upgrades the app, they run a process with the mod-permissions module that's part of a normal upgrade. Mod-permissions uses something called an interface that's named tenantPermissions. As part of the upgrade process, tenantPermissions reviews the permissions in the prior version of the app, and the new version of the app that's being installed.

So, in this example, the tenantPermissions process would identify that hey, ui-bookmobile.all is in version 1.0 of this app, but it's not in version 2.0 of this app. It's been removed.

tenantPermissions than does a few things to the definition of ui-bookmobile.all that, during the upgrade, is still present on San's instance of FOLIO.

it adds an attribute to the permission definition called "inactive", and marks it as true
it changes the name of the permission in the user interface by adding (deprecated) before the permission display name.

The (deprecated) part of the name in the FOLIO UI is what will clue in FOLIO administrators to know that hey, this permission shouldn't be used anymore.

Resources for More Exploration

FOLIO permission model (platform-level discussion)

Releases Home - search for release notes from current and past FOLIO releases to review permissions information and changes over time

Current Permissions Documentation by App Area - this is a Google sheet, maintained by individual product owners as permissions are added to apps they are responsible for.

Versions Compared

Old Version 41

New Version 42

Key

Introduction

Naming Conventions

Key Terminology Definitions

How to find permission information in a FOLIO module

Where can I find examples of permission sets that correspond to library staff roles?

Frequent Workflows

How do I assign permissions to a user in FOLIO?

How do I remove permissions from a user in FOLIO?

How do I create my own permission sets in FOLIO?

Deprecated Permissions - what are they?

Resources for More Exploration