c# - What to do when bit mask (flags) enum gets too large

Question

I have a very large set of permissions in my application that I represent with a Flags enumeration. It is quickly approaching the practical upper bound of the long data type. And I am forced to come up with a strategy to transition to a different structure soon. Now, I could break this list down into smaller pieces, however, this is already just a subset of the overall permissions for our application, based on our applications layout. We use this distinction extensively for display purposes when managing permissions and I would rather not have to revisit that code at this time if I can avoid it.

Has anybody else run into this issue? How did you get past it? General examples are fine, but I am most interested in a c# specific example if there are any language specific tricks that I can employ to get the job done.

May not be neccessary, but here is the list of Permissions currently defined for the portion of the app I am dealing with.

//Subgroup WebAgent
[Flags]
public enum WebAgentPermission : long
{
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Rule Group")]
    ViewRuleGroup = 1,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Rule Group")]
    AddRuleGroup = 2,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Rule Group")]
    EditRuleGroup = 4,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Rule Group")]
    DeleteRuleGroup = 8,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Rule")]
    ViewRule = 16,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Rule")]
    AddRule = 32,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Rule")]
    EditRule = 64,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Rule")]
    DeleteRule = 128,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Location")]
    ViewLocation = 256,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Location")]
    AddLocation = 512,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Location")]
    EditLocation = 1024,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Location")]
    DeleteLocation = 2048,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Volume Statistics")]
    ViewVolumeStatistics = 4096,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Volume Statistics")]
    EditVolumeStatistics = 8192,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Upload Volume Statistics")]
    UploadVolumeStatistics = 16384,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Role")]
    ViewRole = 32768,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Role")]
    AddRole = 65536,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Role")]
    EditRole = 131072,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Role")]
    DeleteRole = 262144,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View User")]
    ViewUser = 524288,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add User")]
    AddUser = 1048576,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit User")]
    EditUser = 2097152,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete User")]
    DeleteUser = 4194304,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Assign Permissions To User")]
    AssignPermissionsToUser = 8388608,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Change User Password")]
    ChangeUserPassword = 16777216,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Audit Logs")]
    ViewAuditLogs = 33554432,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Team")]
    ViewTeam = 67108864,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Team")]
    AddTeam = 134217728,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Team")]
    EditTeam = 268435456,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Team")]
    DeleteTeam = 536870912,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Web Agent Reports")]
    ViewWebAgentReports = 1073741824,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View All Locations")]
    ViewAllLocations = 2147483648,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Access to My Search")]
    AccessToMySearch = 4294967296,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Access to Pespective Search")]
    AccessToPespectiveSearch = 8589934592,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Pespective Search")]
    AddPespectiveSearch = 17179869184,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Pespective Search")]
    EditPespectiveSearch = 34359738368,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Pespective Search")]
    DeletePespectiveSearch = 68719476736,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Access to Search")]
    AccessToSearch = 137438953472,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Form Roles")]
    ViewFormRole = 274877906944,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add / Edit Form Roles")]
    AddFormRole = 549755813888,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete UserFormRolesDifferenceMasks")]
    DeleteFormRole = 1099511627776,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Export Locations")]
    ExportLocations = 2199023255552,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Import Locations")]
    ImportLocations = 4398046511104,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Manage Location Levels")]
    ManageLocationLevels = 8796093022208,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Job Title")]
    ViewJobTitle = 17592186044416,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Job Title")]
    AddJobTitle = 35184372088832,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Job Title")]
    EditJobTitle = 70368744177664,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Job Title")]
    DeleteJobTitle = 140737488355328,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Dictionary Manager")]
    ViewDictionaryManager = 281474976710656,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Dictionary Manager")]
    AddDictionaryManager = 562949953421312,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Dictionary Manager")]
    EditDictionaryManager = 1125899906842624,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Dictionary Manager")]
    DeleteDictionaryManager = 2251799813685248,
    [DescriptionAttribute("View Choice Manager")]
    ViewChoiceManager = 4503599627370496,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Add Choice Manager")]
    AddChoiceManager = 9007199254740992,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Edit Chioce Manager")]
    EditChoiceManager = 18014398509481984,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Delete Choice Manager")]
    DeleteChoiceManager = 36028797018963968,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Import Export Choices")] //57
    ImportExportChoices = 72057594037927936
}

Answer 1

I see values from at least a handful of different enumerations in there...

My first thought was to approach the problem by splitting the permissions up in logical groups (RuleGroupPermissions, RulePermissions, LocationPermissions, ...), and then having a class (WebAgentPermissions) exposing a property for each permission enum type.

Since the permission values seem repetitive, you could probably get away with a single enum in the end:

[Flags]
public enum Permissions
{
    View = 1,
    Add = 2,
    Edit = 4,
    Delete = 8
}

And then have the WebAgentPermissions class expose a property for each area where permissions are to be set;

class WebAgentPermissions
{
    public Permissions RuleGroup { get; set; }
    public Permissions Rule { get; set; }
    public Permissions Location { get; set; }
    // and so on...
}