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Platform hooks

This document describes the hooks that can be implemented to put some additional business logic at user session level.

Important: As of version 5.0, static grant hooks are deprecated, they are replaced by the platform hooks singleton with same methods. Rhino scripting language is no longer supported in Simplicité version 6.0+.

This document describes PlatformHooks implementation examples but it can be directly transposed to legacy GrantHooks.

None of these hooks needs to be implemented. You can implement one or several of these hooks if you want to apply out some dynamic business logic that goes beyond what can be configured.

These hooks are located in the singleton shared code named PlatformHooks.

Platform init hook​

The postPlatformInit (version 4.0+) platform hook can be used to do some unique processing after the platform instance startup.

For instance you can use it to read and use some immutable settings passed to the instance using an environment variable or a JVM argument, e.g.

@Override
public String postPlatformInit(Grant sys) {
	String setting = System.getenv("SOME_ENV");
	if (!Tool.isEmpty(setting)) {
		sys.setSystemParam("MY_SETTING", setting); // set it in database
		sys.setParameter("MY_SETTING", setting); // set it in memory for current system user singleton
		return "MY_SETTING has been set from the SOME_ENV env var";
	}
	return "SOME_ENV env var is not set";
}

Note This initialization-related platform hook is called only once, it is not re-called after a clear cache

Authentication hooks​

The customAuth (version 3.2+), parseAuth (version 3.0+) and postAuth (version 4.0+) platform hooks can be used to implement/customize authentication flows.

Check:

Custom start page hook​

The customStartPage (version 5.0+) platform hook allows to implement a custom low-level start page / instead of the default start page that only redirects to /ui/.

Note that similar start page customization can also be achieved at a higher level by implementing the displayPublic hook of a disposition associated to the public user.

Custom authentication page hook​

As of version 5.0, the customAuthPage platform hooks allows to implement a custom authentication/page.

For more details refer to this documentation

Custom health check hook​

The customHealthCheck (version 6.2+) platform hook allows to implement e custom health check, e.g.:

@Override
public void customHealthCheck(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, boolean minimal) throws Exception {
	AppLog.info("Custom health check called from " + request.getRemoteAddr());

	ServletTool.success(request, response, new JSONObject()
		.put("status", "OK")
		.put("date", Tool.toDatetime(new Date())));
}

User loading hooks​

preLoadGrant & postLoadGrant​

These two platform hooks can be used to dynamically customize the user profile and rights.

The preLoadGrant is called before actually loading the user rights (at that stage the user is authenticated and the platform only knows its login).

Example:

Java

@Override
public void preLoadGrant(Grant g) {
	String login = g.getLogin();
	// e.g. load custom responsibilities and user profile
	super.preLoadGrant(g);
}

The postLoadGrant is called after the user rights are loaded (responsibilities, system parameters...).

Example:

Java

@Override
public void postLoadGrant(Grant g) {
	AppLog.info("Hello " + g.getFirstName() + "!",g);
	// e.g. add custom rights...
	super.postLoadGrant(g);
}

There are also some finer hooks that are enclosed between the above pre/postLoadGrant:

  • preLoadSystemParams & postLoadSystemParams called before and after loading the user's system parameters
  • preLoadProfile & postLoadProfile called before and after loading the main user's settings (e.g. names, language, timezone, ...)
  • preLoadResponsibilities & postLoadResponsibilities called before and after loading the user's responsibilities
  • preLoadMenu & postLoadMenu called before and after loading the user's menu entries

The preLoadHome & postLoadHome hooks are called before and after loading the user's home page, which appends after the user loading above, but also each time the user changes its scope (a scope being associated to a home page)

isMenuEnable​

This hook can be used to dynamically disable a menu item.

It is called for each granted menu item for considered user.

Example:

Java

@Override
public boolean isMenuEnable(Grant g, String domain, String item) {
	// Example to hide to group SIMPLE_USER the Product in the Marketing domain.
	return !(g.hasResponsibility("SIMPLE_USER") && "DomainMarketing".equals(domain) && "Product".equals(item));
}

Fulltext search hooks​

preSearchIndex & postSearchIndex​

These hooks change the result of a fulltext search. The rows argument is a Vector of SearchItem.

Example:

Java

@Override
public List<SearchItem> postSearchIndex(Grant g, List<SearchItem> rows) {
	// Access to the default result
	for (SearchItem item : rows) {
		// Change anything to display here...
		AppLog.info("score "+item.score,g);   // Optional scoring
		AppLog.info("object "+item.object,g); // Optional object name
		AppLog.info("row_id "+item.row_id,g); // Optional row_id
		AppLog.info("key "+item.key,g);   // Item unique key
		AppLog.info("ukey "+item.ukey,g); // Default user key to display
		AppLog.info("data "+item.data,g); // Default payload or summary to display
		if (!Tool.isEmpty(item.values)) {
			// Optional object values as a List of String
		}
	}

	// Sample to add an item on top
	SearchItem item = new SearchItem();
	item.score = "1000";
	item.ukey = "The best item";
	item.data = "This item is always returned...";
	if (!Tool.isEmpty(rows)) rows.add(0,item);
	return rows;
}

Other hooks​

validatePassword​

This platform hook is called when a password change is attempted, it can be used to implement custom rules for password fomat validation:

Java

@Override
public List<String> validatePassword(Grant g, String pwd) {
	List<String> msgs = super.validatePassword(g, pwd);
	if (msgs==null) msgs = new ArrayList<String>();
	if (pwd.indexOf("_") < 0)
		msgs.add(Message.formatError("ERR_SYN_CASE_SUGGESTION", "A good password must include an underscore!", null));
	return msgs;
}

It can returns either a single error message (like in the example above) or an array of error messages. An error message can either be a hard-coded label (like in the example above) or, better, the code of a configured static text (so as it is displayed in the user's language). Otherwise, it must either return nothing (like in the example above) or an explicit null value to indicate that the password is accepted.

The default system-level implementation for password validation is that a password must have at least 8 digits. The error(s) returned by the above hooks are added to the default error message returned when password length is less than 8 digits.

logout​

This platform hook is called when an explicit or implicit logout occurs (it is called just before the session is dropped)

Java

@Override
public void logout(Grant g) {
	AppLog.info("Bye bye " + g.getLogin() + "!", g);
	super.logout(g);
}

downloadDocument​

This platform hook is called when a document download has been requested and has been successfully checked (versions 3.2+):

Java

@Override
public void downloadDocument(Grant g, DocumentDB doc) {
	if ("MyObject".equals(doc.getObjectRef()))
		AppLog.info("The doc " + doc.getId() + " from object " + doc.getObjectRef() + " has been downloaded by " + g.getLogin(), g);
	super.downloadDocument(g, doc);
}
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