hi @Nils-Schiwek

thanks! some references where really outdated + i tried to clarify in #1493 does that make it clearer?

best,
sebastian

Thanks @sjvans this looks a lot better! I just miss some pointers on the cds.context.user.id - afaik it can have the static ids 'anonymous' and 'system' (maybe more). In the past our middleware tried to check if the user object (or id) was empty, but I noticed this has changed, as since the update to cds v8 I get cds.context.user.id = 'anonymous' when before I got empty user object. Is this observation correct?
Could you please add some pointers to the documentation describing the described "named" users 'anonymous' and 'system'?

hi @Nils-Schiwek

the anonymous and privileged users should be checked via instanceof cds.User.Anonymous/Privileged. the matching strings are not sufficient.

system/ technical users, on the other hand, are identified via a pseudo role and should be checked via cds.context.user.is('system-user').

best,
sebastian

for a privileged user, the is(<role>) check always returns true.

btw, why do you need to know if it is the anonymous user? non-anonymous users have pseudo role authenticated-user, so user.is('authenticated-user') should be sufficient.

I tried to use cds.User.Anonymous in a test today, but I am having trouble.

In the middleware I check if user is anonymous with this code:

    if (!cds.context?.user.is('authenticated-user')) {
      next();
      return;
    }

In the test I would expect to use something like

    it('handles request with anonymous user correctly', async () => {
      cds.context = { user: new cds.User('anonymous') } as EventContext;
      
      const nextMock = jest.fn();

      await initUser({} as XssecExpressRequest, {}, nextMock);

      expect(cds.context.user.id).toBe('anonymous');
      expect(nextMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith();
    });

It would be more convenient to use cds.User.Anonymous directly, but I was not able to.
How do you expect us to mock a cds user? Or do I need to mockuser.is()?

I tried to use cds.User.Anonymous in a test today, but I am having trouble.

In the middleware I check if user is anonymous with this code:

    if (!cds.context?.user.is('authenticated-user')) {
      next();
      return;
    }

In the test I would expect to use something like

    it('handles request with anonymous user correctly', async () => {
      cds.context = { user: new cds.User('anonymous') } as EventContext;
      
      const nextMock = jest.fn();

      await initUser({} as XssecExpressRequest, {}, nextMock);

      expect(cds.context.user.id).toBe('anonymous');
      expect(nextMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith();
    });

It would be more convenient to use cds.User.Anonymous directly, but I was not able to. How do you expect us to mock a cds user? Or do I need to mockuser.is()?

new cds.User('anonymous') creates a user that has the id anonymous but is an authenticated user nevertheless. the user's id is an opaque string to us, i.e., it carries no meaning. for a real anonymous user, do user: new cds.User.Anonymous() or user: cds.User.anonymous (the ready-to-use sealed instance).

new cds.User('anonymous') creates a user that has the id anonymous but is an authenticated user nevertheless. the user's id is an opaque string to us, i.e., it carries no meaning. for a real anonymous user, do user: new cds.User.Anonymous() or user: cds.User.anonymous (the ready-to-use sealed instance).

@sjvans is this a new feature? We are on cds 8.5.0 and I get Property 'Anonymous' does not exist on type 'typeof User'
It does not seem like the two samples you described above are available in typescript.

@sjvans is this a new feature? We are on cds 8.5.0 and I get Property 'Anonymous' does not exist on type 'typeof User' It does not seem like the two samples you described above are available in typescript.

no. that's been there a long time. the sealed instances were added in v6.0.0, the classes are even a lot older.

cf. node repl:

Welcome to Node.js v22.8.0.
Type ".help" for more information.
> const cds = require('@sap/cds')
undefined
> cds.User
[Function: exports] {
  default: [Getter/Setter],
  anonymous: Anonymous {},
  Anonymous: [class Anonymous extends User],
  privileged: Privileged {},
  Privileged: [class Privileged extends User],
  _default: Anonymous {}
}
> cds.User.Anonymous
[class Anonymous extends User]
> cds.User.anonymous
Anonymous {}

@daogrady could you please assist re typescript?

Gladly! Feel free to just send me a meeting request so we can work this out.

thanks for the help @sjvans and @daogrady - this really helped me out! Closing this PR as everything important is in #1493