authorization.md

#Umbraco Api - Authorization

This section will describe how to secure your Umbraco Api controllers based on a users membership

##Authorizing for the back office

###Inheriting from UmbracoAuthorizedApiController

Probably the easiest way to ensure your controller is secured for only back office users is to inherit from Umbraco.Web.WebApi.UmbracoAuthorizedApiController. This is essentially the same as applying the UmbracoAuthorizeAttribute to your controller (see below). We also expose the Umbraco user property User UmbracoUser {get;} on this base controller as well.

The UmbracoAuthorizedApiController is automatically routed. Check out the routing documentation for more information on this topic.

###Using UmbracoAuthorizeAttribute

To secure your controller based on back offce membership use the attribute: Umbraco.Web.WebApi.UmbracoAuthorizeAttribute.

It's important to note the namespace since we have another class called UmbracoAuthorizeAttribute in a different namespace that is used for MVC.

This attribute has no parameters it simply ensures that a valid back office user is logged in.

Examples:

This will only allow a logged in back office user to to access the GetAllProducts action:

public class ProductsApiController : UmbracoApiController
{
    [Umbraco.Web.WebApi.UmbracoAuthorize]
    public IEnumerable<string> GetAllProducts()
    {
        return new[] { "Table", "Chair", "Desk", "Computer", "Beer fridge" };
    }
}

##Using MemberAuthorizeAttribute

To secure your controller based on front-end membership use the attribute: Umbraco.Web.WebApi.MemberAuthorizeAttribute.

It's important to note the namespace since we have another class called MemberAuthorizeAttribute in a different namespace that is used for MVC.

There are 4 parameters that can be supplied to control how the authorization works:

//Flag for whether to allow all site visitors or just authenticated members
//This is the same as applying the [AllowAnonymous] attribute
bool AllowAll

//Comma delimited list of allowed member types
string AllowType

//Comma delimited list of allowed member groups
string AllowGroup

//Comma delimited list of allowed member Ids
string AllowMembers

You can apply the attribute at the controller level or at the action level.

Examples:

This will only allow logged in members of type "Retailers" to access the GetAllProducts action:

public class ProductsApiController : UmbracoApiController
{
    [Umbraco.Web.WebApi.MemberAuthorize(AllowType = "Retailers")]
    public IEnumerable<string> GetAllProducts()
    {
        return new[] { "Table", "Chair", "Desk", "Computer", "Beer fridge" };
    }
}

This will only allow member's with Ids 1, 10 and 20 to access any actions on the controller:

[Umbraco.Web.WebApi.MemberAuthorize(AllowMembers = "1,10,20")]
public class ProductsApiController : UmbracoApiController
{	    
    public IEnumerable<string> GetAllProducts()
    {
        return new[] { "Table", "Chair", "Desk", "Computer", "Beer fridge" };
    }
}