Chapter 8. Iteration 5: User Access Control
User based web applications, like our TrackStar application, typically need to control access to certain functionality based on who is making the request. When we speak of user access control, we are referring, at a high-level, to some questions the application needs to ask when requests are being made such as:
Who is making the request?
Does that user have the appropriate permission to access the requested functionality?
The answers to these questions help the application respond appropriately.
The work completed in the last iteration provides the application with the ability to answer the first question. Our implementation of basic user management extended the application user authentication process to use the database. The application now allows users to establish their own authentication credentials and validates the username and password against the database stored values upon user login. After a successful login, the application now knows exactly...
