Index: lams_common/src/java/org/lamsfoundation/lams/tool/ToolAccessMode.java
===================================================================
diff -u -r34b959260a0f8f8285793a4481a95ca3580eabc5 -r9257be516626c2a56f6e3f1ada4b3984146a20b1
--- lams_common/src/java/org/lamsfoundation/lams/tool/ToolAccessMode.java	(.../ToolAccessMode.java)	(revision 34b959260a0f8f8285793a4481a95ca3580eabc5)
+++ lams_common/src/java/org/lamsfoundation/lams/tool/ToolAccessMode.java	(.../ToolAccessMode.java)	(revision 9257be516626c2a56f6e3f1ada4b3984146a20b1)
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@
 import java.io.ObjectStreamException;
 import java.io.Serializable;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.HashCodeBuilder;
+
 /**
  * <p>ToolAccessMode is implemented using Ordinal-based typesafe enum pattern. 
  * It resolves the performance and potential hard coding error problems of using
@@ -84,7 +87,28 @@
     {
         return VALUES[ordinal];
     }
+
+	@Override
+	public boolean equals(Object obj) {
+		if(!(obj instanceof ToolAccessMode))
+			return false;
+		return StringUtils.equals(((ToolAccessMode)obj).name,this.name);
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public int hashCode() {
+		return new HashCodeBuilder().append(name).toHashCode();
+	}
     
+    public boolean isTeacher(ToolAccessMode mode){
+    	return TEACHER.equals(mode);
+    }
+    public boolean isLearner(ToolAccessMode mode){
+    	return LEARNER.equals(mode);
+    }
+    public boolean isAuthor(ToolAccessMode mode){
+    	return AUTHOR.equals(mode);
+    }
     
 
 }
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