django custom groups and custom permissions

Question

I'm creating CMS and now facing some issue I need your advice. I have few different modules (apps) I can define custom permission to them - in model i define custom permissions like "view_store", "edit_store", "delete_store" and so on. And then I have defined different user groups (I want to have group based user access control) - admin, editor, vip, user.

I'm creating these groups when running one time command to initialize CMS (manage.py initcms) and I want of course all the right permissions will be added to the group in the same time.

initcms action is running after the syncdb, so all the models are in DB (info about permissions also of course).

I have something in my mind... If this is good way to go or you have the better one? Let me describe mine: I want to give for example for vip user all the permission from all the models (which have this permission defined) to "view_*". It means vip can view everything. I have an idea when initializing database just grab all entries (all permissions) which fits pattern "LIKE view_%" and then add these all to group's permissions.

But then the problem if the new module will be added... I need to re-run this action and check if all the permissions are right... Maybe there is some dynamic way to deal with group permissions?

Answer 1

One possible solution is to use Django Signals, which can be triggered before or after a model's save mothod has been called or after or before any M2M action takes places, after syncdb etc... You may select a proper signal that fits you best and then call a function that checks related permissions and add or remove any if necessary...