Enable anonymous/guest access in Specify 7

Specify · January 13, 2023, 10:32pm

This tutorial assumes that you have a user designated for guests to use. If you do not, you need to create a new user using the Security & Accounts panel and assign guest permissions accordingly.

In this guide, we have a user named guest in Specify 7 with limited collection access and read-only permissions established.

Adding a guest user is essentially giving anyone with your Specify 7 URL the complete access and permissions of the designated user. Make sure you assign permissions accordingly.

Specify Cloud

If you have Specify Cloud, you can simply create a guest user account to be shared with the public and send us the username. We can easily configure this for you!

Docker Installations

For Docker installations, you can specify the ANONYMOUS_USER in the Dockerfile as well.

github.com

specify/specify7/blob/3b0746f0b542b2c090b6e20a4149a90891e3813c/Dockerfile#L128


      
                  "\nDEPOSITORY_DIR = '/volumes/static-files/depository'" \
                  "\nREPORT_RUNNER_HOST = os.getenv('REPORT_RUNNER_HOST', '')" \
                  "\nREPORT_RUNNER_PORT = os.getenv('REPORT_RUNNER_PORT', '')" \
                  "\nWEB_ATTACHMENT_URL = os.getenv('ASSET_SERVER_URL', None)" \
                  "\nWEB_ATTACHMENT_KEY = os.getenv('ASSET_SERVER_KEY', None)" \
                  "\nWEB_ATTACHMENT_COLLECTION = os.getenv('ASSET_SERVER_COLLECTION', None)" \
                  "\nSEPARATE_WEB_ATTACHMENT_FOLDERS = os.getenv('SEPARATE_WEB_ATTACHMENT_FOLDERS', None)" \
                  "\nCELERY_BROKER_URL = os.getenv('CELERY_BROKER_URL', None)" \
                  "\nCELERY_RESULT_BACKEND = os.getenv('CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND', None)" \
                  "\nCELERY_TASK_DEFAULT_QUEUE = os.getenv('CELERY_TASK_QUEUE', DATABASE_NAME)" \
                  "\nANONYMOUS_USER = os.getenv('ANONYMOUS_USER', None)" \
                  > settings/local_specify_settings.py
          
          RUN echo "import os \nDEBUG = os.getenv('SP7_DEBUG', '').lower() == 'true'\n" \
                  > settings/debug.py
          
          RUN echo "import os \nSECRET_KEY = os.environ['SECRET_KEY']\n" \
                  > settings/secret_key.py
          
          ENV LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
          ENV LANG=C.UTF-8

Example:

"\nANONYMOUS_USER = os.getenv('ANONYMOUS_USER', 'guest')" \

Local Installations

Set this line in the specify_settings.py file to equal a username contained in quotes.