Private spaces implementation

[valentinRyckaert]

Summary of changes

Database

3 new tables

• groups:
  • id: bigint
  • title: string
• groups_membership:
  • user_id: bigint
  • group_id: bigint
  • owner: boolean
• groups_spaces:
  • group_id: bigint
  • space_id: bigint

Changes in existing tables

• spaces:
  • new - is_private: boolean

Code

New group controller and policy

• everyone can see all groups (like users)
• only members and admins of a group can see the group details page
• only owners and admins can edit/destroy a group (and so add people)
• only admins can create a group
• cant create/edit/destroy by API

New MemberShip Model

• primary key: group_id, user_id
• belongs to user
• belongs to group

Shown? in application policy

• show if:
  • the record does not belong to a space
  • the space of the record is public
  • the record is a space (so the space list can be shown in the main space)
  • the space of the record is the current space and user is in at least one of the required groups for the space (the user needs to be connected) or the user is an admin (admin have so full rights)

Spaces controller and policy updates

• space policy:

  • everyone can see public spaces
  • only members of required groups can see private spaces
  • only space admins/ main admins can edit space
  • only main admins can create/destroy space

• space controller:

  • index: filter shown spaces with shown? policy function

Solr search_index updates

• uses shown? to filter the ressources list to show (index view of materials, events and spaces)

Application controller updates

• check if the user has the right to access current_space (private space) with the shown? function and show default space if not

Space model update

• all ressources form a private space are destroyed if the space is destroyed
• if the space is public, all the ressources except roles (destroyed) are nullified
• when nullified, we reload Solr index to make changes visible

Rdoc

• docstrings
• documentation about followed conventions

Screenshots

Checklist

• I have read and followed the CONTRIBUTING guide.
• I confirm that I have the authority necessary to make this contribution on behalf of its copyright owner and agree to license it to the TeSS codebase under the BSD license.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces “private spaces” backed by a new group/membership system, and threads the resulting access-control rules through Pundit policies, controllers (space resolution + search/index filtering), UI, and tests.

Changes:

• Adds Group/GroupMembership models + CRUD UI, plus authorization rules that allow read access to members/admins and restrict write access to owners/admins (and block API writes).
• Adds spaces.is_private and space↔group association, with shared ApplicationPolicy#shown? visibility logic and private-space enforcement in ApplicationController#set_current_space.
• Filters indexed/search results (incl. Solr-backed listings) by shown?, and adds documentation + test coverage for the private-space access scenario.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 53 out of 55 changed files in this pull request and generated 14 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
test/system/groups_test.rb	System tests for basic Groups UI flows (index/create/update/destroy).
test/models/space_test.rb	Model validation test for “private space must have required groups”.
test/models/group_test.rb	Placeholder Group model test file.
test/integration/private_space_access_test.rb	Integration-style coverage for private-space access across spaces/materials surfaces.
test/fixtures/groups.yml	Adds Group fixtures used by tests.
test/controllers/groups_controller_test.rb	Controller-level tests for Group authorization + API write restrictions.
Gemfile	Adds explicit rdoc (>= 8.0) dependency.
Gemfile.lock	Updates lockfile for rdoc/rbs/prism-related dependencies.
docs/spaces.md	Documents private spaces behavior and deletion/nullification semantics.
docs/docstrings.md	Adds RDoc/docstring conventions documentation.
db/schema.rb	Adds groups, group_memberships, groups_spaces, and spaces.is_private to schema.
db/migrate/20260612065213_create_groups.rb	Creates groups table.
db/migrate/20260612065245_create_join_table_groups_users.rb	Creates interim groups↔users join table (later replaced).
db/migrate/20260612065251_create_join_table_groups_spaces.rb	Creates groups↔spaces join table.
db/migrate/20260618090239_add_is_private_to_spaces.rb	Adds is_private boolean to spaces.
db/migrate/20260618141208_replace_groups_users_with_group_memberships.rb	Replaces groups_users with group_memberships join model (with owner flag).
config/routes.rb	Adds RESTful routes for groups.
config/locales/en.yml	Updates “spaces” copy to mention private spaces/groups.
config/application.rb	Whitespace-only change.
app/views/users/show.html.erb	Adds a “Groups” section to the user sidebar with collapse/overflow UI.
app/views/users/_list.json.jbuilder	Alters /users.json list output (now excluding admins).
app/views/spaces/edit.html.erb	Whitespace-only change.
app/views/spaces/_form.html.erb	Adds private-space toggle and groups autocompleter; includes JS.
app/views/layouts/_user_menu.html.erb	Adds “View groups” to admin/curator/owner admin menu.
app/views/groups/index.html.erb	New Groups index UI.
app/views/groups/show.html.erb	New Groups show page with members + related spaces sections.
app/views/groups/new.html.erb	New group page.
app/views/groups/edit.html.erb	Edit group page.
app/views/groups/_form.html.erb	Group form with user autocompleter + owner flag selection.
app/views/groups/_group.html.erb	Group partial.
app/views/groups/_group.json.jbuilder	Group JSON representation.
app/views/groups/index.json.jbuilder	Groups index JSON.
app/views/groups/show.json.jbuilder	Group show JSON.
app/serializers/group_serializer.rb	Adds Group serializer for API/JSON:API usage.
app/policies/application_policy.rb	Adds shared shown? visibility logic for private-space scoping + docstrings.
app/policies/space_policy.rb	Aligns SpacePolicy show/edit/destroy with shown?/admin/space-admin rules.
app/policies/group_policy.rb	New GroupPolicy for member/admin visibility and HTML-only writes.
app/policies/material_policy.rb	Ensures Material show? also requires shown? (private-space visibility).
app/policies/event_policy.rb	Ensures Event show? also requires shown? (private-space visibility).
app/models/user.rb	Adds group/group_membership associations + owner helper methods.
app/models/space.rb	Adds groups association, private-space validation, and destroy-time handling + docstrings.
app/models/group.rb	New Group model with memberships and spaces associations.
app/models/group_membership.rb	New join model with owner flag and composite PK intent.
app/models/global_space.rb	Adjusts equality semantics for GlobalSpace.
app/helpers/groups_helper.rb	Adds Groups helper module.
app/controllers/groups_controller.rb	Adds Groups CRUD with membership owner syncing + policy enforcement.
app/controllers/spaces_controller.rb	Filters spaces#index by shown? and permits group_ids/is_private.
app/controllers/materials_controller.rb	Adds @results_count for index results.
app/controllers/concerns/searchable_index.rb	Filters Solr results by shown? and changes JSON:API meta keys.
app/controllers/application_controller.rb	Enforces private-space access at space resolution time (host-based).
app/assets/javascripts/templates/autocompleter/group_member.hbs	Autocompleter template for group membership rows (incl. owner checkbox).
app/assets/javascripts/templates/autocompleter/group_id.hbs	Autocompleter template for group selection in space form.
app/assets/javascripts/show_private_groups.js	Toggles required-groups UI based on “private space” checkbox.
app/assets/javascripts/autocompleters.js	Adds groups transform function for autocompleter responses.
app/assets/config/manifest.js	Includes show_private_groups.js in asset pipeline.

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[valentinRyckaert]

Why removing @spaces = Space.all.select { |space| policy(space).shown? }? @spaces needs to be initialized.

[kennethrioja]

I just ran the whole test suite on this branch, it works locally.......

Maybe tests fail because of the gem audit failing as well?