[java] Spring Security with roles and permissions

The basic steps are:

  1. Use a custom authentication provider

    <bean id="myAuthenticationProvider" class="myProviderImplementation" scope="singleton">
    ...
    </bean>
    

  2. Make your custom provider return a custom UserDetails implementation. This UserDetailsImpl will have a getAuthorities() like this:

    public Collection<GrantedAuthority> getAuthorities() {
        List<GrantedAuthority> permissions = new ArrayList<GrantedAuthority>();
        for (GrantedAuthority role: roles) {
            permissions.addAll(getPermissionsIncludedInRole(role));
        }
        return permissions;
    }
    

Of course from here you could apply a lot of optimizations/customizations for your specific requirements.