Create and Query iTwin Roles

Introduction

This tutorial is for the Access Control API V2. To control the API version, see the API versions documentation.

This tutorial will take you through the process of creating and retrieving roles for a given iTwin. Roles enable you to organize permissions and are assigned to one or more members. While not required, roles usually reflect the functional job duties within an organization and may be determined by various factors such as tasks or business operations.

You can create roles on the Account iTwin to manage access across iTwins or create a roles for an individual iTwin. Roles created on an individual iTwin are available only on that iTwin. For more information for managing access using the Account iTwin, see Managing access using the Account iTwin

By the end of this walk-through, you will be able to utilize the API endpoints in order to create roles, add & assign permissions to the role, and retrieve the list of iTwin roles.

Info

Skill level:

Basic

Duration:

15 minutes

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you already have:

A tool, such as Postman that can be used to execute HTTP calls. These calls can also be made using the Try it out button in the API documentation.
If a user is affiliated with an Organization, the user must be an Organization Administrator to create an iTwin. An Organization Administrator must have at least one of the following roles assigned in User Management: Account Administrator, Co-Administrator, or CONNECT Services Administrator. For more information about User Management please visit our Bentley Communities Licensing, Cloud, and Web Services wiki page.
Permissions to assign to a role. To see the list of available permissions, see get all permissions.

1. Register an Application

You will need to register an application to use the iTwin Platform APIs. You can use the Register button to automatically create your first single page application (SPA). This will allow you to configure Authorization Code Flow for your SPA application and get the correct access token.

Once generated, you will be shown a few lines of code under the button.

IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_CLIENT_ID - this is the unique identifier for your application. Displayed on application details page as Client ID.
IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_REDIRECT_URI - specifies where users are redirected after they have chosen whether or not to authenticate your app. Displayed on application details page as one of Redirect URIs.
IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_LOGOUT_URI - specifies where users can be returned to after logging out. Displayed on application details page as one of Post logout redirect URIs.
IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_SCOPES - list of accesses granted to the application. Displayed on application details page as Scopes.

Or optionally: Register and configure your application manually following instructions in Register and modify an Application tutorial. Make sure that your application is associated with iTwins API and has iTwins:modify and iTwins:read scopes enabled.

Register a basic SPA App for this tutorial

Requires you to sign in. Will automatically generate a Single page application (SPA) that is required to complete this tutorial. You will be able to manage your SPA from your My apps page.

2. Get a token

Before you can make a request to the APIs, a user token is needed. There are several ways to get it.

Implement Authorization Code Flow in the application

Follow this article to implement Authorization code workflow in your application.

Here you can use Client ID generated from previous registration step.

Grab a user token from the iTwins documentation page

Go here
Click Try it out button.
Under the Authorization section, select authorizationCode from the dropdown.
After the sign in popup closes, the Authorization header with token value should be visible beneath the HTTP request dropdown.
Copy & paste the Authorization value for this tutorial.

Use user token to replace JWT_TOKEN dynamic parameter in the next steps.

3. Create iTwin Role

The Create iTwin role endpoint is used to create iTwin roles. After a role is created, permissions can be assigned.

The iTwin id from an existing iTwin (see create and query iTwins guide) is required to create a role. A display name and description are required in the POST body.

The POST call will return a new role instance. The returned role id along with the iTwin id will be used to add permissions in the next step.

Request Syntax

HTTP

POST https://api.bentley.com/accesscontrol/itwins/{id}/roles HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

HTTP

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v2+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

JSON

{
    "displayName":"iTwin Administrator",
    "description":"A description of iTwin Administrator"
  }

Response Headers

HTTP

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-length: 203
content-type: application/json
date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 17:26:10 GMT
request-context: appId=cid-v2:7a353d36-9a8b-423e-965e-9d7f51324584
x-correlation-id: 74e263d7-ded7-45a5-8347-ca1f98ffab86
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v2
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

JSON

{
    "role":{
      "id":"14b391cf-ce9e-43d3-8fee-c49e57c2680d",
      "displayName":"iTwin Administrator",
      "description":"A description of iTwin Administrator",
      "permissions":[]
    }
  }

4. Update iTwins Role Using the iTwin Id and Role Id

To assign permissions, the Role needs to be updated. iTwin id and role id are required. The POST body should contain list of permissions.

To see the list of available permissions, see get all permissions.

The response will contain the role details along with the list of permissions assigned.

Request Syntax

HTTP

PATCH https://api.bentley.com/accesscontrol/itwins/{id}/roles/{roleId} HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

HTTP

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v2+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

JSON

{
        "displayName": "A new Role display name",
        "description": "A new Role description",
        "permissions":[
          "administration_invite_member",
          "administration_manage_roles",
          "administration_remove_member"
      ]
  }

Response Headers

HTTP

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-length: 324
content-type: application/json
date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:17:39 GMT
request-context: appId=cid-v2:7a353d36-9a8b-423e-965e-9d7f51324584
x-correlation-id: f16d2765-4a9c-40a4-995e-bd7c6b8b8d4a
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v2
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

JSON

{
    "role":{
      "id":"10a2d277-ea41-4e81-b309-f7a9aea09d51",
      "displayName":"iTwin Administrator",
      "description":"A description of iTwin Administrator",
      "permissions":[
        "administration_invite_member",
        "administration_manage_roles",
        "administration_remove_member"
      ]
    }
  }

5. Query for Roles using the iTwin Id

iTwin Id can be used to retrieve a list of iTwin roles.

The api will return a list of roles for a given iTwin.

Request Syntax

HTTP

GET https://api.bentley.com/accesscontrol/itwins/{id}/roles HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

HTTP

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v2+json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Response Headers

HTTP

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
date: Mon, 29 Aug 2022 19:24:14 GMT
request-context: appId=cid-v2:7a353d36-9a8b-423e-965e-9d7f51324584
vary: Accept-Encoding
x-correlation-id: 260678e5-0244-413d-bc60-f6dac19fd450
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v2
x-itwinplatform-region: East US
x-rate-limit-limit: 1s
x-rate-limit-remaining: 49
x-rate-limit-reset: 2022-08-29T19:24:15.3864257Z

Response Body

JSON

{
        "roles": [{
            "id": "5ba9eab1-9597-4f20-b360-4d79b9af511d",
            "displayName": "iTwin Administrator",
            "description": "The iTwin Administration Role",
            "permissions": [],
            "assignedDateTime": "0001-01-01T00:00:00"
        }, {
            "id": "fe117fcd-7cf0-4f95-829f-b4cc065dc6ed",
            "displayName": "iTwin Administrator 3",
            "description": "The iTwin Administration Role 3",
            "permissions": [],
            "assignedDateTime": "0001-01-01T00:00:00"
        }]
    }