Simple example for configuring Spring Security's RoleHierarchy via YAML in Spring Boot, compatible with Java 7

App.java

package demo;

import static java.util.Arrays.asList;
import static org.springframework.security.core.authority.AuthorityUtils.createAuthorityList;

import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.EnableConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.security.access.hierarchicalroles.RoleHierarchy;
import org.springframework.security.access.hierarchicalroles.RoleHierarchyImpl;

import lombok.Getter;
import lombok.Setter;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableConfigurationProperties(SecurityPropertiesExtension.class)
public class App {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		RoleHierarchy roleHierarchy = SpringApplication.run(App.class, args).getBean(RoleHierarchy.class);

		for (String role : asList("ROLE_ALL", "ROLE_A", "ROLE_C")) {
			System.out.printf("Role: %s implies: %s%n", role,
					roleHierarchy.getReachableGrantedAuthorities(createAuthorityList(role)));
		}

	}

	@Bean
	RoleHierarchy roleHierarchy(SecurityPropertiesExtension spe) {
		return RoleHierarchyUtils.roleHierarchyFromMap(spe.getHierarchy());
	}
}

@Getter
@Setter
@ConfigurationProperties("security.roles")
class SecurityPropertiesExtension {

	Map<String, List<String>> hierarchy = new LinkedHashMap<>();
}

class RoleHierarchyUtils {

	public static RoleHierarchy roleHierarchyFromMap(Map<String, List<String>> roleHierarchyMapping) {

		StringWriter roleHierachyDescriptionBuffer = new StringWriter();
		PrintWriter roleHierarchyDescriptionWriter = new PrintWriter(roleHierachyDescriptionBuffer);

		for (Map.Entry<String, List<String>> entry : roleHierarchyMapping.entrySet()) {

			String currentRole = entry.getKey();
			List<String> impliedRoles = entry.getValue();

			for (String impliedRole : impliedRoles) {
				String roleMapping = currentRole + " > " + impliedRole;
				roleHierarchyDescriptionWriter.println(roleMapping);
			}
		}

		RoleHierarchyImpl roleHierarchy = new RoleHierarchyImpl();
		roleHierarchy.setHierarchy(roleHierachyDescriptionBuffer.toString());
		return roleHierarchy;
	}
}

application.yml

security:
  roles:
    hierarchy:
      ROLE_ALL: ROLE_A, ROLE_C
      ROLE_A: ROLE_B
      ROLE_B: ROLE_AUTHENTICATED
      ROLE_C: ROLE_AUTHENTICATED
      ROLE_AUTHENTICATED: ROLE_UNAUTHENTICATED

output.md

Role: ROLE_ALL implies: [ROLE_C, ROLE_A, ROLE_B, ROLE_UNAUTHENTICATED, ROLE_AUTHENTICATED, ROLE_ALL]
Role: ROLE_A implies: [ROLE_A, ROLE_B, ROLE_UNAUTHENTICATED, ROLE_AUTHENTICATED]
Role: ROLE_C implies: [ROLE_C, ROLE_UNAUTHENTICATED, ROLE_AUTHENTICATED]

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

	<groupId>de.tdlabs.training</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-security-role-hierarchy-from-yaml-example</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<packaging>jar</packaging>

	<name>spring-boot-security-role-hierarchy-from-yaml-example</name>
	<description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>

	<parent>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
		<version>1.3.6.RELEASE</version>
		<relativePath /> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
	</parent>

	<properties>
		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
		<project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
		<java.version>1.8</java.version>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
			<artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
			<version>1.16.8</version>
			<scope>provided</scope>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

	<build>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
				<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>


</project>