Authorization and Consent
The concepts of consent and authorization in Smile CDR are related but distinct. When a FHIR request is being processed, there are two specific layers that are invoked to make decisions on whether the request can proceed and what data is ultimately disclosed: The Authorization Service and the Consent Service.
The following diagrams show the functionality provided by each of these layers.
The following diagram shows the primary purpose of the Authorization Service.
The Authorization Service looks at every request (including both the details of the request, and any data being returned) and makes a determination about whether the operation should be permitted or blocked.
As inputs into its decision, the Authorization Service uses:
The Authorization Service makes a simple binary determination: either the request is authorized, or it is blocked and the client will see an HTTP 403 Unauthorized response.
The following diagram shows the primary purpose of the Consent Service.
The Consent Service looks at every request and makes a determination about whether any data being exposed is acceptable for the user to see, and optionally removes it from what is returned. This removal may include filtering out entire resources (i.e. blocking), and/or filtering out certain elements of resources being returned (i.e. masking).
The consent service is a very flexible mechanism, based entirely on programmed consent rules. Unlike the Authorization Service, which uses a fixed set of inputs (permissions and scopes) to make decisions, the consent script may use any of a number of inputs including but not limited to:
See Consent Service for information on setting up the consent service.