Missing Documentation for String-Based Permission Values

[alperozturk96]

In this documentation, permissions are represented as integer values such as (int) 1 = read; 2 = update; 4 = create; 8 = delete; 16 = share; 31 = all (default: 31, for public shares: 1).

However, when performing a PROPFIND operation, the permission information returned for files is in a string format (e.g., SGDNV, SRGDNVCK).

The correlation between these string and the integer values is missing.

According to my tests

SRGDNVCK → Can Edit
SGDNV → Custom Permission only Edit
Also, SGDNV → View Only

We need to know which custom permission is active for a file based on its string value on the client side, so that we can implement this feature.

Version: 31.0.6.2

[mpivchev]

There is a correlation between the values. Yes, for some reason we use bit permissions in OCS API, but WebDAV uses symbolic permissions.

In iOS we have the following:

class NCMetadataPermissions: NSObject {
    static let permissionShared = "S"
    static let permissionCanShare = "R"
    static let permissionMounted = "M"
    static let permissionFileCanWrite = "W"
    static let permissionCanCreateFile = "C"
    static let permissionCanCreateFolder = "K"
    static let permissionCanDelete = "D"
    static let permissionCanRename = "N"
    static let permissionCanMove = "V"

    static func canCreateFile(_ metadata: tableMetadata) -> Bool {
        return metadata.permissions.contains(permissionCanCreateFile)
    }

    static func canCreateFolder(_ metadata: tableMetadata) -> Bool {
        return metadata.permissions.contains(permissionCanCreateFolder)
    }

    static func canDelete(_ metadata: tableMetadata) -> Bool {
        return metadata.permissions.contains(permissionCanDelete)
    }

    static func permissionsContainsString(_ metadataPermissions: String, permissions: String) -> Bool {
        for char in permissions {
            if metadataPermissions.contains(char) == false {
                return false
            }
        }
        return true
    }
}

I then have these helper bools for each metadata:

 var isCreatable: Bool {
        if isDirectory {
            return NCMetadataPermissions.canCreateFolder(self)
        } else {
            return NCMetadataPermissions.canCreateFile(self)
        }
    }

    var isDeletable: Bool {
        if (!isDirectoryE2EE && e2eEncrypted) || !NCMetadataPermissions.canDelete(self) {
            return false
        }
        return true
    }

Since we only need to handle CREATE permissions for folders, we need to make sure the metadata is a folder:

   self.metadataFolder = self.database.getMetadataFolder(session: self.session, serverUrl: self.serverUrl)
        self.richWorkspaceText = self.database.getTableDirectory(predicate: predicateDirectory)?.richWorkspace

        if let metadataFolder {
            nkLog(info: "Inside metadata folder \(metadataFolder.fileName) with permissions: \(metadataFolder.permissions)")

            // disable + button if no create permission
            plusButton.isEnabled = metadataFolder.isCreatable
            plusButton.backgroundColor = metadataFolder.isCreatable ? NCBrandColor.shared.customer : .lightGray
        }

[icewind1991]

The property values are documented in https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/developer_manual/client_apis/WebDAV/basic.html#supported-properties

Though there are some minor issues that will be fixed with #13390