feat: adding permissions checks related to course section and units

[jacobo-dominguez-wgu]

Description

Continuation of #3196. That PR added permission checks to the course outline home page; this one extends the same authorization model to the course section and unit (internal) pages.

It conditionally renders, hides, or disables the editable and publishable elements on the section/unit pages so that users only interact with the actions their role permits, applying "read-only" states or removing modification/publish actions as defined by the design.

Concretely, on the unit and section pages the following are now gated:
edit_course_content — when the user lacks this permission, content-editing affordances become read-only or hidden, including:

• Unit header actions: the Add component action and the title Edit button (and the Edit action on legacy library-content / split-test pages).
• The Add component and Paste strips on the unit page.
• XBlock/item actions exposed through the unit sidebar menu (duplicate, delete, unlink, move, copy, manage tags, etc.).
• The unit sidebar footer Discard changes and Copy actions.
• The access/visibility form controls in the configure modal (unit visibility checkbox, group access select and group checkboxes, discussion checkbox) and the shared visibility settings (Student Visible / Staff Only buttons and the "hide after due" checkbox).
  publish_course_content — when the user lacks this permission, the Publish action in the unit sidebar footer is hidden.

Permissions are resolved through the shared CourseAuthoringProvider (useCourseAuthoringContext), which now exposes canEditCourseContent and canPublishCourseContent via useCourseUserPermissions, consistent with #3196.

AI usage notice: used Claude Opus 4.8 through kiro to assist on the modification and creation of unit tests.

Permission Matrix

Category	Permission	Course Editor	Course Auditor
Course Access & Content	courses.view_course	✅	✅
	courses.create_course	❌	❌
	courses.publish_course_content	❌	❌
	courses.edit_course_content	✅	❌

Important

The publish and content edition options specific to the xblocks will be handled in a different pr.

Impacted user roles: Course Author / Course Editor and Course Auditor (and any role mapped to the permissions above).

Supporting information

Continuation of #3196 (course outline home page).
Partially closes openedx/openedx-authz#383.
Needs openedx/openedx-authz#384
Figma: «link»
Note: permissions related to Tags are handled in a separate ticket (openedx/openedx-authz#314).

Testing instructions

Depends on openedx/openedx-authz#384.

Requirements

Enable the authz.enable_course_authoring waffle flag.
You can set course_auditor or course_editor role to a user using the API <lms_url>/api-docs/#/authz/authz_v1_roles_users_update
Payload example:

{
  "role": "course_auditor", // role
  "scope": "course-v1:OpenedX+DemoX+DemoCourse", //courseId
  // use scopes instead of scope if you need to set more than 1 resource
  "users": [
    "my_username" // username or email
  ]
}

Test case 1 — course_auditor

1. Log in as a user with the course_auditor role on the course.
2. Open a unit page (and open a section/subsection configure modal from the outline).
3. Confirm the unit content and settings are visible but not editable: no Add/Paste, no title Edit, no sidebar item actions, no Publish/Discard/Copy, and the configure-modal access/visibility controls are disabled.

These elements must not be visible:

These elements must be visible but disabled (read-only, not clickable)

Test case 2 — course_editor

1. Log in as a user with the course_editor role on the course.
2. Open a unit page and a configure modal.
3. Confirm the user can add/edit content (Add/Paste, title Edit, item actions, editable access/visibility controls) but the Publish action is not available.

Test case 3 — other roles (staff, superuser, course_admin, course_staff)

1. Log in with a role other than course_editor/course_auditor.
2. Open a unit page and configure modal.
3. Confirm all add/edit/publish affordances are visible and fully functional (no regression).

Also verify that with the authz.enable_course_authoring flag disabled, everything behaves exactly as before (all permissions fall back to granted).

Best Practices Checklist

We're trying to move away from some deprecated patterns in this codebase. Please
check if your PR meets these recommendations before asking for a review:

• Any new files are using TypeScript (.ts, .tsx).
• Avoid propTypes and defaultProps in any new or modified code.
• Tests should use the helpers in src/testUtils.tsx (specifically initializeMocks)
• Do not add new fields to the Redux state/store. Use React Context to share state among multiple components.
• Use React Query to load data from REST APIs. See any apiHooks.ts in this repo for examples.
• All new i18n messages in messages.ts files have a description for translators to use.
• Avoid using ../ in import paths. To import from parent folders, use @src, e.g. import { initializeMocks } from '@src/testUtils'; instead of from '../../../../testUtils'

Warning

Will be in draft status until the 403 problem is fixed openedx/openedx-authz#384

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 95.94%. Comparing base (2c14cef) to head (31b21c2).
⚠️ Report is 2 commits behind head on master.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #3200      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   95.93%   95.94%   +0.01%     
==========================================
  Files        1397     1397              
  Lines       33603    33657      +54     
  Branches     7687     7710      +23     
==========================================
+ Hits        32237    32293      +56     
+ Misses       1323     1321       -2     
  Partials       43       43              

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[jesusbalderramawgu]

I have tested all the scenarios and it works as expected.
Thank you!

[jesusbalderramawgu]

LGTM!

[bradenmacdonald]

Please ping me to review once the other PR(s) is merged and this is ready :)

[jacobo-dominguez-wgu]

Dependency pr is merged openedx/openedx-platform#38986. This one is ready for review @bradenmacdonald

[dcoa]

I just noticed a small bug from part 1 . I thought was not related to our changes but it actually is.

When we hide the actions for the outline unit card, the footer is overflowing, as you can see in the following image

The solution is remove the item-children class in:

frontend-app-authoring/src/course-outline/outline-level.ts

Lines 79 to 107 in 2c14cef

	export const LEVEL_CONFIG: Record<Depth, LevelConfig> = {
	0: {
	name: 'section',
	contentClass: 'section-card__content',
	contentTestId: 'section-card__content',
	childContainerClass: 'section-card__subsections',
	childContainerTestId: 'section-card__subsections',
	containerType: ContainerType.Subsection,
	iconSize: 'md',
	background: { padding: '1.75rem' },
	},
	1: {
	name: 'subsection',
	contentClass: 'subsection-card__content item-children',
	contentTestId: 'subsection-card__content',
	childContainerClass: 'subsection-card__units',
	childContainerTestId: 'subsection-card__units',
	containerType: ContainerType.Unit,
	iconSize: 'sm',
	background: { background: '#f8f7f6' },
	},
	2: {
	name: 'unit',
	contentClass: 'unit-card__content item-children',
	contentTestId: 'unit-card__content',
	iconSize: 'xs',
	background: { background: '#fdfdfd' },
	},
	};

And add the class in OutlineNode.tsx component as follows:

frontend-app-authoring/src/course-outline/OutlineNode.tsx

Line 350 in 2c14cef

className={levelConfig.contentClass}

                className={classNames(levelConfig.contentClass, {
                  // `item-children` pulls the content 2.75rem to the right so it spans
                  // under the drag handle column. Without the handle there is no column
                  // to fill, and the negative margin would overflow the card.
                  'item-children': isDraggable,
                })}

Can we implement it as part of the current PR?

[jacobo-dominguez-wgu]

I just noticed a small bug from part 1 . I thought was not related to our changes but it actually is.
When we hide the actions for the outline unit card, the footer is overflowing, as you can see in the following image
Can we implement it as part of the current PR?

@dcoa Sure, it is implemented. Can you check again?

[dcoa]

Thank you for removing the class here, could you please do the same in unit (the second object in the array)?

[dcoa]

Thank you I dont have any extra comments

[BryanttV]

Tested on my local and it works as expected, thanks!

[BryanttV]

@jacobo-dominguez-wgu, sorry, while running some other tests, I noticed that the "Publish Changes" button is still visible to a Course Editor and Course Auditor, here:

Could we fix that?