Access control for unpublishing

cerize

last month

1 1

• Selected Answer
  

  jacobsfletch

  Payload Team

  last month

  @cerize Hi! You can use the beforeChange hook to check the document's _status. If it went from published to draft then you can throw an API error. Something like this (untested):

  import APIError from "payload/dist/errors/APIError";
  
  const beforeChangeHook: GlobalBeforeChangeHook = async ({
    data, // incoming data to update or create with
    req, // full express request
    originalDoc, // original document
  }) => {
    if (originalDoc._status === 'published' && data._status !== 'published') throw new APIError('You cannot do this!');
    return data; // Return data to update the document with
  }

  Here are the docs for this hook: https://payloadcms.com/docs/hooks/globals#beforechange

  7 replies
• 

  cerize

  last month

  @jacobsfletch let me bug you one more time. Does a hook ever receive the _status 'changed'? It seems that if I publish a document, then make a random modification, the status goes back to 'draft' and I thought it would be 'changed': https://payloadcms.com/docs/versions/drafts#database-changes. My use case is 'Do not allow changing the field x if the document was ever published.

• 

  cerize

  last month

  @jacobsfletch there is also another scenario that would make the status go from published to draft. It's when something is published as someone just 'save draft'. So that may not be enough to distinguish 'unpublish'?

• 

  jacobsfletch

  Payload Team

  last month

  @cerize I believe the changed status is virtual and doesn't ever save to the db. This is because a single document is never changed—they can only every be draft or published.

  It's when something is published as someone just 'save draft'. So that may not be enough to distinguish 'unpublish'?

  Ok so you need to prevent them from unpublishing documents, but allow them to save drafts. You're right this is tricky, it's not immediately clear to me how we'd handle these cases.

• 

  cerize

  last month

  thanks for the clarification @jacobsfletch! Do you know if it's in the roadmap any change that would allow to target the 'unpublish' action?

• 

  DanRibbens

  Payload Team

  last month

  You could add a hidden: true field for new field named wasPublished that you give a beforeChange that conditionally sets the field true if (value || _status === 'published'). Then in a custom validation logic function on the locked in fields you could compare the wasPublished value.

  Would that work for your scenario @cerize?

• 

  jacobsfletch

  Payload Team

  last month

  ^^ BOOM! @cerize you should give this a shot.

  Do you know if it's in the roadmap any change that would allow to target the 'unpublish' action?

  I believe it's this one: #1324

• 

  cerize

  last month

  Thanks @DanRibbens and @jacobsfletch , I will try!