Legal documents#

This page lists what a FairDM portal has for legal documents: the pages, the URL names, the permissions, the models you can query and the system checks. It does not describe the settings, which are in Settings, or who is asked to agree, which is in Who is asked to agree to a legal document.

FairDM installs django-mvp-compliance, the mvp_compliance app, and wires it in for every portal that calls fairdm.setup():

mvp_compliance is in INSTALLED_APPS.
mvp_compliance.middleware.AgreementMiddleware is in MIDDLEWARE.
fairdm.conf.urls mounts mvp_compliance.urls under legal/.
An Agreements entry is added to the account area’s menu.

FairDM ships no documents. Until your portal publishes one, there are no pages under /legal/ and the check asks nobody anything.

Pages and URL names#

URL name	Address	Who may open it	What it shows
`mvp_compliance:document`	`/legal/<slug>/`	Everyone	A document in the version in force. `?version=<number>` shows any published version of it
`mvp_compliance:agree`	`/legal/agree/`	Signed-in people	The documents outstanding for the person, each with a toggle. Accepts a `next` address to go on to
`mvp_compliance:agreed`	`/legal/agreed/`	Signed-in people	The person’s own list of the versions they accepted

The document page answers “not found” for a slug that names no document, a document with nothing published and a ?version= value that names no published version. It answers the same way to a signed-in person as to a visitor.

The agreed page answers “not found” in a portal whose URL configuration has no account-center name.

The slugs agree and agreed are reserved and cannot name a document.

Documents and versions#

A document has a name, a slug and a kind. A version holds the text.

Field	Type	Default	What it does
`Document.name`	`str`, 100 characters	None	The name the document is known by. Unique
`Document.slug`	slug, 100 characters	None	The segment of the document’s address. Unique, lowercase. It cannot change once a version is published
`Document.kind`	`"agreed"` or `"notice"`	`"agreed"`	Whether people agree to the document or only read it. Nobody is asked to accept a notice
`Document.enforced`	`bool`	`True`	Whether a person who has not accepted the document is stopped until they do. It never applies to a notice
`Version.markdown`	text	None	The wording, in Markdown
`Version.status`	`"draft"`, `"current"` or `"superseded"`	`"draft"`	Set by publishing. A document has at most one current version
`Version.number`	`str`	None	The year and the version’s place among that year’s versions, such as `2026.1`. A draft has none

A published version can never be edited. A correction is a new version.

Creating a document from code#

from mvp_compliance.models import Document

terms = Document.objects.create(name="Terms of use", slug="terms-of-use")
terms.versions.create(markdown="# Terms of use\n\n...").publish()

Version.publish(publisher=None) makes a draft the version in force and supersedes the one that held it. It raises PublishError when the version is not a draft, when its rendered output is empty and when it says exactly what the version in force says.

Queries#

Method	Returns
`Document.objects.in_force()`	The documents that have a version in force
`Document.objects.outstanding_for(user)`	The documents whose version in force `user` has not accepted. A notice is never outstanding
`Document.objects.enforced_outstanding_for(user)`	The outstanding documents that are enforced
`document.current`	The version in force, or `None`
`document.is_outstanding_for(user)`	`True` when `document` is outstanding for `user`

Permissions#

All belong to the mvp_compliance app.

Permission	What it allows
`add_document`, `change_document`	Writing documents in the administration interface
`add_version`, `change_version`	Writing draft versions
`publish_version`	Publishing a version, which puts it in force at once
`skip_agreement`	Going on without accepting the enforced documents. Superusers are never stopped

None of the four portal roles holds these.

System checks#

The checks run only when AgreementMiddleware is in MIDDLEWARE.

ID	Severity	It reports
`mvp_compliance.E001`	Error	The page that asks has no address, because `mvp_compliance.urls` is not mounted
`mvp_compliance.E002`	Error	Nothing that identifies the signed-in user comes before `AgreementMiddleware`
`mvp_compliance.E003`	Error	`MVP_COMPLIANCE_AGREEMENT_EXEMPT_URLS` or `MVP_COMPLIANCE_AGREEMENT_EXEMPT_USERS` is a string where a list is needed
`mvp_compliance.E004`	Error	`MVP_COMPLIANCE_AGREEMENT_CHECK_INTERVAL` is not a number