nowakadmin/nova-role-manager

Complete role-based access control (RBAC) system for Laravel Nova with multi-tenancy support, policies, and permissions

dev-main 2026-01-19 19:32 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.3
• illuminate/support: ^12.0
• laravel/nova: ^5.0
• spatie/laravel-multitenancy: ^4.0
• spatie/laravel-permission: ^6.0

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^11.0

MIT

• Nowak Administrators

• authorization
• nova
• laravel
• roles
• permissions
• rbac
• access-control
• policies
• multi-tenancy

README

A complete, reusable role-based access control (RBAC) system for Laravel Nova with multi-tenancy support, policies, and permissions.

Built on top of spatie/laravel-permission with Nova admin UI layer and multi-tenancy integration.

Features

• 🔐 Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) - Manage user roles and permissions via spatie/laravel-permission
• 🏢 Multi-Tenancy Support - Full tenant isolation using Spatie Multitenancy
• 📋 Nova Integration - Manage roles and permissions directly from Nova admin panel
• 🔑 Policies - Built-in Laravel policies for model authorization
• 🎯 Flexible Permissions - Resource-based permission system (view, create, update, delete, manage)
• 🔄 Trait-Based - Easy integration with existing User model via Authorizable trait
• ⚡ Industry Standard - Built on battle-tested spatie/laravel-permission package
• 🌍 Multi-Language - English and Polish translations included

Installation

1. Install via Composer

composer require nowakadmin/nova-role-manager

2. Add Authorizable Trait to User Model

In your app/Models/User.php:

use NovaRoleManager\Traits\Authorizable;
class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use Authorizable; // Add this
    // ... rest of model
}

3. Publish Files

# Publish migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="NovaRoleManager\Providers\NovaRoleManagerServiceProvider" --tag=migrations

# Publish config
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="NovaRoleManager\Providers\NovaRoleManagerServiceProvider" --tag=config

# Publish translations
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="NovaRoleManager\Providers\NovaRoleManagerServiceProvider" --tag=translations

4. Run Migrations

For multi-tenant projects:

php artisan tenants:artisan "migrate --path=database/migrations/tenant --database=tenant"

For single-tenant projects:

php artisan migrate

5. Register Policies (Optional but Recommended)

In app/Providers/AuthServiceProvider.php:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;
use NovaRoleManager\Policies\BasePolicy;

protected $policies = [
    // Your models here
    YourModel::class => YourPolicy::class, // extends BasePolicy
];

public function boot(): void
{
    $this->registerPolicies();

    Gate::define('is-superadmin', fn($user) => $user->isSuperAdmin());
    Gate::define('manage-roles', fn($user) => $user->hasPermission('manage.role'));
}

Configuration

Edit config/nova-role-manager.php:

return [
    'user_model' => \App\Models\User::class,
    
    'resources' => [
        'user' => 'User',
        'role' => 'Role',
        'permission' => 'Permission',
        // Add your application resources
    ],
    
    'actions' => [
        'view' => 'View',
        'create' => 'Create',
        'update' => 'Update',
        'delete' => 'Delete',
        'manage' => 'Manage',
    ],
];

Usage

User Methods

$user = auth()->user();

// Check roles
$user->hasRole('admin');
$user->isSuperAdmin();

// Check permissions
$user->hasPermission('view.user');
$user->hasPermission('create.role');
$user->hasAnyPermission(['view.user', 'view.role']);
$user->hasAllPermissions(['create.user', 'update.user']);

// Assign/Remove roles
$user->assignRole('admin');
$user->assignRole($roleModel);
$user->removeRole('admin');
$user->syncRoles(['admin', 'moderator']);

Role Methods

$role = Role::first();

// Check/grant/revoke permissions
$role->hasPermission('view.user');
$role->grantPermission('create.user');
$role->revokePermission('delete.user');
$role->revokeAllPermissions();

// Access relationships
$role->permissions;
$role->users;

Nova Authorization

Use canSee() in Nova resources:

public function fields(NovaRequest $request)
{
    return [
        // Only visible to superadmin
        Boolean::make('is_superadmin')
            ->canSee(fn() => auth()->user()->isSuperAdmin()),
        
        // Only if user has permission
        Text::make('Sensitive Field')
            ->canSee(fn() => auth()->user()->hasPermission('manage.sensitive')),
    ];
}

Creating Custom Policies

Create a policy extending BasePolicy:

namespace App\Policies;

use NovaRoleManager\Policies\BasePolicy;

class ArticlePolicy extends BasePolicy
{
    protected function getResourceName(): string
    {
        return 'article';
    }
    
    // Optional: Override specific methods
    public function update($user, Article $article)
    {
        // Custom logic
        return $user->id === $article->author_id 
            && parent::update($user, $article);
    }
}

Register in AuthServiceProvider:

protected $policies = [
    Article::class => ArticlePolicy::class,
];

Permission Format

Permissions follow a action.resource naming convention:

• view.user - View users
• create.user - Create users
• update.user - Update users
• delete.user - Delete users
• manage.role - Manage roles
• manage.permission - Manage permissions

Default Roles

The package creates these default roles (optional via configuration):

• superadmin - Full access to everything
• manager - Can view, create, update, delete (except manage)
• technician - Limited access to specific resources
• viewer - Read-only access

Multi-Tenancy

The package is fully compatible with Spatie Multitenancy:

// All models use tenant connection automatically
$role = Role::create(...); // Scoped to current tenant
$permission = Permission::create(...); // Scoped to current tenant

// First user in each tenant automatically becomes superadmin

Seeding Permissions

Create a seeder to populate permissions:

use NovaRoleManager\Models\Permission;
use NovaRoleManager\Models\Role;

public function run()
{
    // Create permissions
    Permission::firstOrCreate(
        ['name' => 'view.article'],
        ['resource' => 'article', 'action' => 'view', 'description' => 'View articles']
    );
    
    // Grant to role
    $role = Role::firstOrCreate(['name' => 'editor']);
    $role->grantPermission('view.article');
}

API Integration

Check permissions in your API:

class ArticleController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $this->authorize('create', Article::class);
        
        // Or manually:
        if (!auth()->user()->hasPermission('create.article')) {
            abort(403);
        }
        
        // ... create article
    }
}

Testing

public function testUserCanViewArticles()
{
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $permission = Permission::firstOrCreate(
        ['name' => 'view.article'],
        ['resource' => 'article', 'action' => 'view']
    );
    
    $user->assignRole(
        Role::firstOrCreate(
            ['name' => 'viewer'],
            ['is_superadmin' => false]
        )
    );
    
    // Grant permission
    $user->roles->first()->grantPermission($permission);
    
    $this->assertTrue($user->hasPermission('view.article'));
}

Database Schema

Roles Table (nrm_roles)

• id - Primary key
• tenant_id - Tenant identifier (multi-tenancy)
• name - Unique role name
• description - Role description
• is_superadmin - Superadmin flag
• created_at, updated_at

Permissions Table (nrm_permissions)

• id - Primary key
• tenant_id - Tenant identifier
• name - Unique permission name
• resource - Resource type (user, role, article, etc.)
• action - Action (view, create, update, delete, manage)
• description - Permission description
• created_at, updated_at

Pivot Tables

• nrm_role_permission - Maps roles to permissions
• nrm_user_role - Maps users to roles

Events & Observers

The package includes:

• UserObserver - Automatically assigns superadmin role to first user in tenant

Troubleshooting

First user not becoming superadmin

• Ensure Authorizable trait is added to User model
• Check that UsesTenantConnection is on User model for multi-tenancy
• Run migrations for the tenant

Permissions not working

• Verify policies are registered in AuthServiceProvider
• Check permission names follow action.resource format
• Ensure user has required role before checking permission

Nova resources not appearing

• Publish package with --tag=config and --tag=translations
• Clear Nova cache: php artisan nova:publish && php artisan optimize:clear
• Check user has manage.role and manage.permission permissions

License

MIT License. See LICENSE file for details.

Support

For issues and questions, please open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/NowakAdmin/NovaRoleManager

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.