People and privacy
The library uses the people of Home Assistant. Each reading status, rating and private
note belongs to 1 Home Assistant person. A user of Home Assistant is linked to a person
in Settings → People. The library acts for the person of the user who signs in.
What each user can do
| Operation | Admin | Other user |
|---|---|---|
| Manage rooms, shelves, books, copies, covers, loans and the wishlist | Yes | No |
| Scan, import and export | Yes | No |
| Set the reading status, rating, page and notes of their own person | Yes | Yes |
| Set the reading status of another person | Yes | No |
| Turn Share reading on or off, and set the yearly goal, for their own person | Yes | Yes |
| Select the wishlist to-do list of a person | Yes | No |
| Read the books, the shelves and the covers | Yes | Yes |
The Library tab is in the Home Keeper panel, which only admins can open. Other users use the dashboard card, the entities and the services. A user with no linked person can read the library, and cannot set a reading status.
What other users read
Admins read the whole library. Other users do not read:
- the price, the value and the source of a copy;
- the name of the person who borrowed or lent a book;
- the private notes of another person;
- the reading status of a person who turned Share reading off.
Shared notes are for the whole household. Private notes are for 1 person and the admins.
People settings
An admin sets these in the Settings page of the Library tab, for each person:
- Share reading: other users see the reading status of the person, with no private notes. It is on by default.
- Yearly goal: the number of books to read this year. The card and a sensor show it.
- Wishlist to-do list: the to-do list that gets the wishlist books with Buy set (Wishlist).
The Settings page also shows the currency, and has the export of the library.
Entities
Each person gets a To read to-do list and 2 sensors: books read this year and reading now. Home Assistant shows each entity to every user, so the library applies its privacy rules to these entities:
- Only the user of the person and an admin can change the To read list of that person. An automation can change it too.
- If Share reading is off, the 3 entities of the person are unavailable. They come back when Share reading is on again.