Restrict user access to some docs in CouchDB

Question

I am very new to the CouchDB world! I have a database that can be read by all users, and also can edit the docs except for the design docs. Is there a way I can make a specific user edit only the doc that was created by him/her. I am using CouchApp nd the jquery.couch.js plugin

Answer 1

Assuming you avoid making all users admin and that you use CouchDB's build-in authentication mechanism, I think that's the default behaviour.

For creating regular users, see Creating regular users in CouchDB.

For more details about how the user authentication and authorization actually works, see Security Features Overview, specifically the section below "Authentication database", which outlines the built in rules in CouchDB.

Only admin users can create new users, but there's nothing stopping your from having a program logging in and doing it automatically (using an admin user, this is assuming you are looking for some kind of "Registration" process where you would do for instance email validation through some other software of yours).

Answer 2

CouchDB doesn't have per-document permissions, only per-database permissions. If you grant write access to a user, he has write access to all the documents in the database.