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Migrating Relations

In the lifecycle of software development, you will need to make updates or changes to the authorization model. In this guide, you will learn best practices for changing your existing authorization model. With these recommendations, you will minimize downtime and ensure your relationship models stay up to date.

Before you start

This guide assumes you are familiar with the following OpenFGA concepts:

  • A Type: a class of objects that have similar characteristics
  • A User: an entity in the system that can be related to an object
  • A Relation: is a string defined in the type definition of an authorization model that defines the possibility of a relationship between an object of the same type as the type definition and a user in the system
  • An Object: represents an entity in the system. Users' relationships to it can be defined through relationship tuples and the authorization model
  • A Relationship Tuple: a grouping consisting of a user, a relation and an object stored in OpenFGA
  • Intersection Operator: the intersection operator can be used to indicate a relationship exists if the user is in all the sets of users

Step by step

The document below is an example of a relational authorization model. In this model, you can assign users to the editor relation. The editor relation has write privileges that regular users do not.

In this scenario, you will migrate the following model:

model
schema 1.1

type document
relations
define editor: [user]
define can_edit: editor

type user

There are existing relationship tuples associated with editor relation.

[{
"user": "user:anne",
"relation": "editor",
"object": "document:roadmap"
}{
"user": "user:charles",
"relation": "editor",
"object": "document:roadmap"
}]

This is the authorization model that you will want to migrate to:

model
schema 1.1

type document
relations
define writer: [user]
define can_write: writer

type user

01. Create a backwards compatible model

To avoid service disruption, you will create a backwards compatible model. The backwards compatible model ensures the existing relationship tuple will still work.

In the example below, user:Anne still has write privileges to the document:roadmap resource.

model
schema 1.1

type document
relations
define editor: [user]
define writer: [user] or editor
define can_write: writer
define can_edit: writer

type user

Test the can_edit definition. It should produce a value of true.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Run a check
const { allowed } = await fgaClient.check({
user: 'user:anne',
relation: 'can_write',
object: 'document:roadmap',
}, {
authorization_model_id: '01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA',
});

// allowed = true
Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Run a check
const { allowed } = await fgaClient.check({
user: 'user:anne',
relation: 'can_edit',
object: 'document:roadmap',
}, {
authorization_model_id: '01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA',
});

// allowed = true

02. Create a new relationship tuple

Now that you have a backwards compatible model, you can create new relationship tuples with a new relation.

In this example, you will add Bethany to the writer relationship.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

await fgaClient.write({
writes: [
// Bethany assigned writer instead of editor
{"_description":"Bethany assigned writer instead of editor","user":"user:bethany","relation":"writer","object":"document:roadmap"}
],
}, {
authorization_model_id: "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"
});

Run a check in the API for Bethany to ensure correct access.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Run a check
const { allowed } = await fgaClient.check({
user: 'user:bethany',
relation: 'can_write',
object: 'document:roadmap',
}, {
authorization_model_id: '01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA',
});

// allowed = true

03. Migrate the existing relationship tuples

Next, migrate the existing relationship tuples. The new relation makes this definition obsolete.

Use the read API to look up all relationship tuples.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Execute a read
const { tuples } = await fgaClient.read({

});

// tuples = [{"key": {"user":"user:anne","relation":"editor","object":"document:planning"}, "timestamp": "2021-10-06T15:32:11.128Z"},{"key": {"user":"user:charles","relation":"editor","object":"document:planning"}, "timestamp": "2021-10-06T15:32:11.128Z"}]

Then filter out the tuples that do not match the object type or relation (in this case, document and editor respectively), and update the new tuples with the write relationship.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

await fgaClient.write({
writes: [
{"user":"user:anne","relation":"writer","object":"document:roadmap"},
{"user":"user:charles","relation":"writer","object":"document:roadmap"}
],
}, {
authorization_model_id: "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"
});

Finally, remove the old relationship tuples.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

await fgaClient.write({
deletes: [
{ user: 'user:anne', relation: 'editor', object: 'document:roadmap'},
{ user: 'user:charles', relation: 'editor', object: 'document:roadmap'}
],
}, {
authorization_model_id: "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"
});
info

Perform a write operation before a delete operation to ensure Anne still has access.

Confirm the tuples are correct by running a check on the user.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Run a check
const { allowed } = await fgaClient.check({
user: 'user:anne',
relation: 'can_write',
object: 'document:roadmap',
}, {
authorization_model_id: '01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA',
});

// allowed = true

The old relationship tuple no longer exists.

Initialize the SDK
// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Run a check
const { allowed } = await fgaClient.check({
user: 'user:anne',
relation: 'editor',
object: 'document:roadmap',
}, {
authorization_model_id: '01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA',
});

// allowed = false

04. Remove obsolete relationship from the model

After you remove the previous relationship tuples, update your authorization model to remove the obsolete relation.

model
schema 1.1

type document
relations
define writer: [user]
define can_write: writer

type user

Now, the write API will only accept the new relation name.

Transactional Writes

Learn how to perform transactional write

Relationship Queries

Understand the differences between check, read, expand and list objects.

Production Best Practices

Learn the best practices of running OpenFGA in a production environment