id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
783	Add ¨id¨ field to anonymous user object	EABinGA	Adrian Holovaty	"I am frequently needing the functionality to allow users to only update their own data and not other peoples data.

In my template I tried something like this according to the pythonic principal of least surprise:


{{{
{% ifequal user.id data.author_id %}
    #allow user to do something (e.g. show an edit link)
{% endifequal %}
}}}

If the user is anonymous, this fails and shows a traceback, because the anonymous user has not have an ¨id¨ property.

Instead I must write this:
{{{
{% if not user.is_anonymous %}{% ifequal user.id data.author_id %}
    # allow user to do something
{% endifequal %}{% endif %}
}}}

The same problem arises in view code:
{{{
if request.user.is_anonymous() or (request.user.id <> data.author_id):
    # deny access to template and give out error
}}}

'''Suggestion:'''

If the anonymous user had an ¨id¨ property, the additional checks would not be needed.

The value for this ¨id¨ could be ¨None¨ as not be be mistaken for a real user.

I believe that the User and Anonymoususer objects should behave as similar to each other as possible, and I believe this improves things a bit."	enhancement	closed	Core (Other)		trivial	fixed			Unreviewed	0	0	0	0	0	0