In the previous post, we discussed two different approaches to implementing authorization: coupled with the database and decoupled from it. In this post, we'll focus on the other axis of the quadrant: authorization embedded inside the application vs. as a separate service. Let's complete the second half of the quadrant.
Authorization is a special topic for software development. You'll get many theories about different patterns if you do a search: their pros and cons. However, it's surprisingly difficult to find concrete examples to follow. It's mainly because the detailed approach highly depends on your specific application: its domain models, unique security requirements, and its choice of framework.
This post aims to fill the gap by targeting Prisma - the most popular ORM for TypeScript developers. By narrowing it down to a specific toolkit and language, we can explain the concepts more efficiently using code instead of words.
The security of most applications depends on two pillars: authentication (AuthN) and authorization (AuthZ). The former checks if the user is who one claims to be, and the latter governs what one can do in the system.
Authentication is a well-understood problem. After many years of evolution, the industry has summarized clear patterns you can adopt and best practices to follow. You'll find mature libraries and services available for all major programming languages, whether with credentials, magic links, OTP, MFA, or OAuth. Once you settle on a solution, it tends to be stable and rarely needs much change over time.
Authorization, on the contrary, is a whole different story. Concepts like RBAC and ABAC are well-known and widely accepted. However, how to implement them is vaguely defined, leaving developers a lot of room for creativity and mistakes. Authorization is a hard problem because it's often deeply coupled with the unique characteristics of your application, making it hard to have a one-size-fits-all solution.
Large Language Models have shown the world its incredible versatility. One of its most remarkable powers is to turn fuzzy human language into executable code. This not only helps engineers improve their productivity but also enables non-technical people to achieve what used to require help from developers.
Generating analytical data queries is one of the most popular use cases of LLM-based code generation. What can be cooler for business analysts than to ask a question in plain human language and get a visualization in seconds? Traditionally, only big boys like PowerBI and Google Sheets could offer features like that, but now LLM has democratized AI capabilities and lowered the bar. In this post, I'll demonstrate a simple implementation and will also cover an important but often overlooked topic: access control.
Yes, authorization. It's like the "salad part" of your diet - you know it's vital and indispensable but struggle to enjoy. Implementing authorization doesn't need to be a fancy job. Just roll up your sleeves and turn business rules into code. We've all been there at some point and all been hurt by the consequences:
RedwoodJS is an opinionated full-stack framework for building modern web applications. It makes some of the most critical decisions for you - like using React for UI development, GraphQL for API, and Prisma for database programming, etc. - so you can stop struggling with choices and focus on building your app.
Regarding authorization, RedwoodJS has built-in support for RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), which can work well for simple apps but can easily hit its limit for complex scenarios. In this article, we'll explore an alternative way of implementing authorization that may surprise you. Instead of doing it at the GraphQL API and service code level, we move it down to the ORM layer.