fix: allow_to_create_new_org checks org autocreate [FC-0076]

[pomegranited]

Description

Updates the StudioHome API's allow_to_create_new_org to require both organization-creation permissions and settings.ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE to be enabled.

Previously, users with staff permission were allowed to attempt organization autocreation when creating a course or library using the Authoring MFE, but if ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE was disabled, they would get an error from the creation API.

ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE is enabled by default, but edx.org disables it.

Useful information to include:

• Which edX user roles will this change impact? Course Authors

Supporting information

Part of: openedx/frontend-app-authoring#1577

Testing instructions

See Authoring MFE PR.

Deadline

None

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[pomegranited]

For reference, the can_create_organizations value is set here:

edx-platform/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views/course.py

Lines 1794 to 1798 in c5fabd5

	def user_can_create_organizations(user):
	"""
	Returns True if the user can create organizations.
	"""
	return user.is_staff or not settings.FEATURES.get('ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP', False)

which is pretty different from the original allow_to_create_new_org. But it didn't make sense to me that we'd use a different default value for settings.FEATURES['ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP'] AND require the user to be staff here.

[navinkarkera]

@pomegranited This seems reasonable but the logic while creating courses seems different. If the setting to create new org is set to False, the API only allows user/staff to create courses in organizations they are allowed in:

• https://github.com/open-craft/frontend-app-course-authoring/blob/a25a09e053ea0e0d153bfd28280072ebe6e5475f/src/generic/create-or-rerun-course/hooks.jsx#L35
• https://github.com/open-craft/edx-platform/blob/1ac6e02bb8a16ac76bc0f2e4d25626e4e0734c01/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/utils.py#L1582

We also have get_allowed_organizations_for_libraries for libraries, so probably we need to do the same here.

[pomegranited]

Good catch @navinkarkera ! see f1f40e0

[navinkarkera]

👍 Looks good! @pomegranited

• I tested this: (Tried creating org via new lib page and course page)
• I read through the code
• I checked for accessibility issues
• Includes documentation

[edx-pipeline-bot]

2U Release Notice: This PR has been deployed to the edX staging environment in preparation for a release to production.

[edx-pipeline-bot]

2U Release Notice: This PR has been deployed to the edX production environment.

[edx-pipeline-bot]

2U Release Notice: This PR has been deployed to the edX production environment.

[hinakhadim]

I'm from 2u-TnL team. Recently, we noticed that we are not able to create Course (being staff users) because we are not getting organizations in CreateCourseForm. In my devstack, I'm able to do so and everything is working fine. I've gone through this PR and found that settings.ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE should be True. In devstack locally, it is already true. You have also mentioned in the description that "ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE is enabled by default, but edx.org disables it."

Is there any reason that this flag is False for edx.org?

[pomegranited]

Hi @hinakhadim , my apologies for a delayed reply and for the disruption this change has caused your team.

You have also mentioned in the description that "ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE is enabled by default, but edx.org disables it."

Yep -- I got this information from @kdmccormick on the original issue: openedx/frontend-app-authoring#1577 (and there's more background about it in this ADR). But given that context, I think it's important to keep ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE == False on edx.org.

we are not able to create Course (being staff users) because we are not getting organizations in CreateCourseForm

Ok, this seems to be the real issue -- you should see the list of organizations that you're allowed to create courses for in that list. But from digging in today, I think this PR conspired with this line in the Course Authoring MFE -- so instead of seeing the full list of organizations, now you only see the "allowedOrganizations" list. But that allowed_organizations list is empty because FEATURES["ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP"] == False. Unfortunately I can't recommend that you set FEATURES["ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP"] = True either -- that flag would change a lot of things for a lot of people.

So I think we need to fix the Course Authoring MFE like this: openedx/frontend-app-authoring#1689

[hinakhadim]

@pomegranited Thank you for your response and for identifying the issue correctly.

For our stage instance, FEATURES["ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP"] is set to True, while ORGANIZATIONS_AUTOCREATE remains False.

Since ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP is enabled, the function is executing as expected. However, as I am a Staff user rather than a Course Creator, I am receiving an empty array ([]) from here in the code.

Furthermore, I am sharing a screenshot of the Stage Studio API of my user for further clarity. You can see allow_to_create_org is false and can_create_organizations is true. I believe your fix PR will address these conditions and resolve the issue.