Reading journey: let parents share their uploaded books with their children #729

New Issue

2026-07-20T02:58:03Z

spikerj commented

2026-07-20 02:58:03 +00:00

Problem

In the reading journey a parent can upload a book, but there is no way to make that uploaded book available to their children — the uploaded book never appears in the per-child "approved books" grant list, and even if its id were added, the child still couldn't read it.

Root cause (two structural layers + a latent bug)

Read gate. BookAccess.IsInLibrary nested a child's ApprovedBookIds allow-list inside a Public && Available conjunction, and parent uploads are permanently Visibility="Private" (no code path ever makes them Public). So the parental allow-list could only narrow the public catalog — never grant a private upload.
Upload moderation. An uploaded book only becomes a real, grantable Book after staff approve it, so a parent couldn't even see their own upload to share it.
Latent data-loss bug (found while tracing): the child-permissions DTO/handler/read-mapper round-tripped only 8 of 13 permission fields, so every per-child save silently reset Photography / PhotoLocationSharing / InfoVault / Blog.

Fix (spikersoft-backend + spikersoft-angular, PRs linked below)

Household read branch: a child may read an Available book their linked parent uploaded once the parent grants it (parent ownership and explicit per-child grant both required; a third party's private book is never reachable). Verified by a BookAccess test matrix.
Self-approve family uploads: a reading-journey (personal/family) upload skips staff moderation and processes immediately. The automated security scan still runs; nothing becomes Public. Scope was kept narrow — only the reading-journey dialog opts in; the book-shelf dialog stays staff-moderated.
Grant picker now lists the public catalog plus the parent's own uploads (processed only), labelled "Your upload".
Narrow grant endpoint (PUT/DELETE /api/profile/parental/children/{childUserId}/approved-books/{bookId}) mutates only ApprovedBookIds, validates the parent may grant the book, and preserves sibling permissions — also fixing the pre-existing clobber for the full-permissions endpoint.

Decisions (confirmed with the requester)

Bypass staff moderation for family/personal uploads.
Fix the permissions-clobber bug as part of this work.

Verification

Backend: full SpikerSoft.UnitTests.slnf green (incl. new BookAccess household matrix, self-approve, grant auth/grantability, permissions no-clobber).
Frontend: affected test/lint/typecheck green (parent-dashboard grant tests added).
Remaining: manual parent→child E2E with seeded accounts (upload → processes without staff → grant → child reads → revoke → 404) before release.

## Problem In the reading journey a parent can upload a book, but there is no way to make that uploaded book available to their children — the uploaded book never appears in the per-child "approved books" grant list, and even if its id were added, the child still couldn't read it. ## Root cause (two structural layers + a latent bug) 1. **Read gate.** `BookAccess.IsInLibrary` nested a child's `ApprovedBookIds` allow-list *inside* a `Public && Available` conjunction, and parent uploads are permanently `Visibility="Private"` (no code path ever makes them Public). So the parental allow-list could only *narrow the public catalog* — never grant a private upload. 2. **Upload moderation.** An uploaded book only becomes a real, grantable `Book` after **staff** approve it, so a parent couldn't even see their own upload to share it. 3. **Latent data-loss bug** (found while tracing): the child-permissions DTO/handler/read-mapper round-tripped only 8 of 13 permission fields, so every per-child save silently reset Photography / PhotoLocationSharing / InfoVault / Blog. ## Fix (spikersoft-backend + spikersoft-angular, PRs linked below) - **Household read branch**: a child may read an `Available` book their **linked parent** uploaded once the parent grants it (parent ownership **and** explicit per-child grant both required; a third party's private book is never reachable). Verified by a BookAccess test matrix. - **Self-approve family uploads**: a reading-journey (personal/family) upload skips **staff** moderation and processes immediately. The automated **security scan** still runs; nothing becomes Public. Scope was kept narrow — only the reading-journey dialog opts in; the book-shelf dialog stays staff-moderated. - **Grant picker** now lists the public catalog **plus the parent's own uploads** (processed only), labelled "Your upload". - **Narrow grant endpoint** (`PUT/DELETE /api/profile/parental/children/{childUserId}/approved-books/{bookId}`) mutates only `ApprovedBookIds`, validates the parent may grant the book, and **preserves sibling permissions** — also fixing the pre-existing clobber for the full-permissions endpoint. ## Decisions (confirmed with the requester) - Bypass staff moderation for family/personal uploads. - Fix the permissions-clobber bug as part of this work. ## Verification - Backend: full `SpikerSoft.UnitTests.slnf` green (incl. new BookAccess household matrix, self-approve, grant auth/grantability, permissions no-clobber). - Frontend: affected `test`/`lint`/`typecheck` green (parent-dashboard grant tests added). - Remaining: manual parent→child E2E with seeded accounts (upload → processes without staff → grant → child reads → revoke → 404) before release.

spikerj referenced this issue

2026-07-20 15:26:28 +00:00

Child book read-context never built on real tokens: bare FindFirst("sub") nulled by JWT inbound claim mapping (breaks #729 household grants; #618 child gate fail-opens) #734

spikerj referenced this issue

2026-07-20 15:51:27 +00:00

Child's own profile drops 5 granted permissions — ProfileMapper.ToDto maps only 8 of 13 FeaturePermissions fields (child sees "Blog posting isn't turned on" despite parent grant) #736

spikerj commented

2026-07-22 02:43:23 +00:00

Verified complete: feature landed in BOTH repos — backend PR #432 + angular PR #454 ('parents can share/grant their uploaded books with their children'). Closing.

spikerj closed this issue

2026-07-22 02:43:23 +00:00

spikerj referenced this issue

2026-07-22 03:16:33 +00:00

Epic: build the full parent-approval book model (upload approval chain, ApprovedBy audit, parent family/staff-uploads view, auto-Public-on-approval) #621

spikerj referenced this issue

2026-07-29 18:25:11 +00:00

Epic: build the full parent-approval book model (upload approval chain, ApprovedBy audit, parent family/staff-uploads view, auto-Public-on-approval) #621

Sign in to join this conversation.