Hey guys
Here's a suggestion about the `user_ctx` record in couch_db.hrl:
We've been working on custom authentication handlers and one issue came
up to pass some custom information into `validate_doc_update`.
We're essentially having a bunch of databases, each of which holds
documents with user information. Now, instead of passing on the user
from the `_users` table as `user_ctx`, we're passing on the actual
user interacting with our application and the current database.
Think of it this way:
- Request comes in for database `foo`.
- `Authorization` header is checked against the `_user` database
- If it is all right, we look at a custom header `X-App-User` which
is essentially a document id.
- We look this id up in the database `foo` and get a user document:
{ _id : "bar", roles: [], yadda: 'yadda'}
- We take the `roles` attribute from that document and pass it
on as `user_ctx`.
Now, that seems fine. Our problem though is that there are some cases
where we would want to pass on more into the `validate_doc_update` function
than just `user_ctx.name` and `user_ctx.roles`.
I went with this problem to #erlang, to ask if there's a way to extend
predefined records with arbitrary attributes, and it turns out that
this is way too hacky - and possibly would lead to maintenance hell
down the road.
Suggestion/Request:
Add another attribute `aux` or whatever to the `user_ctx` record,
which can be populated with whatever junk one wants to use in
`validate_doc_update`.
Maybe there is already a way and I'm missing it (didn't look too
closely at the `handler` attribute, figured that is already used for
something internally) - or better ways to do what we're trying. If so,
hints please. :)
Feedback, thoughts? Do you take patches? :)
Alen
