sails.js + passport.js req.user is undefined - node.js

I am using sails.js as backend / API and angular js as frontend.
The server and the client are on different domain.
When I authentify my user with passport, I set the session of sails with the user object.
Then when I am authentified and I start a new request from my front to list products, on my server (sails.js) req.user is undefined and in my session there is not the user I created.
How can I sort out this issue? I would like to setup the current user as a session on my backend to avoid retrieving it everytime with id. I will have better performance.
Any ideas?
Thanks,

Ok I found the answer.
You need to add this line in angularjs app.js
$httpProvider.defaults.withCredentials = true;
Thanks

When you login/signup return the user data as API instead of using seasons.

Related

Simple example of user authentication using Next.JS, Express and Passport

I really don't understand, why it is so complex to build authentication and persisting in session with Node.js.
I'm having trouble with session persistance, that is described here.
Maybe, I something don't understand...
So, in an SPA, when a browser making fetch with POST method from UI, Passport authenticates and saves session in DB (as I've setup).
What's next?
How to tell React front-end (browser, server…), that It should apply newly created cookie and use it for all subsequent requests for HMR, GraphQL and other stuff?
What I have is all subsequent requests to server referring old cookie (not created one on successful authentication) and that correct one will never looked up…
Some explanation will be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
PS: Still looking for simple working examples of authentication with latest Next.js, Express and Passport. I'm stuck with this problem on a week…
You can make a request to the endpoint of express which is going to return you the information... for this you can use Axios, when it response you can set the cookie with something like this:
document.cookie = `id_token=${token}; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2020 12:00:00 UTC`
In my case I set a token because I use JWT, when the cookie is set, you can request it on the server side using cookie-parser, so, when you are going to verify is the user is logged you can check if the cookie exists on the server (Next.js) and render the template, otherwise you can redirect to other view... something like this:
server.get('/profile', (req, res) => {
const actualPage = '/profile';
const logged = req.cookies['id_token']
if (logged) {
return app.render(req, res, actualPage)
}
return res.redirect('/')
})
If you want to see the complete example, check this repo

Store session in client's browser using raw node.js and cookie without express

I am trying to store client session using raw node.js without express.
When a user logs in I have the username and password. Now, how to store a session in client browser using cookie. And how to identify the user when they refresh the tab or goes to another link.I don't want to use client-sessions module as I want to understand the approach.
any help will be appreciated.
First of all, I suggest you to watch everything about authentication in NodeJS It explains cookies in a part very well.
You have to give the browser some data to hold for it to use later, which being cookies. Browser uses this data to show the server what kind of authentications it has processed before for the server and the user to proceed without repetition.
In node.js, using client-sessions module, you can set a cookie by calling
app.post('/login', function(req,res){
User.findOne({password: req.body.userPassword}, function(err, user){
if(user){
req.session.user = user; //here you are setting the cookie for the client,
}
})
})
You could also specify what kind of cookie you want to set by just adding it a property
req.session.userEmail = user.email;
Now let's check how the server uses authentication
app.get('/someUrl', function(req,res){
if(req.session.user){
console.log("user exists!");
}
})
You can check what the client sends you by using session property of req object => req.session
To bind it with database you need to do,
if(req.session.user){
User.findOne({email: req.session.user.email}, func...)
}
So basically, with each request that client sends, this procedure is used by the server to identify the cookies and to make the web-app user-friendly with no repetition.
It is like giving every student an ID in a school for authentication.
Security
For security, the node module cookie-sessions encrypt data automatically when we add secret attribute in app.use() function. Please see using secret in client-sessions module

Session management in sails js framework

I'm new to sail's and node, I'm trying to create/maintain a session without user login. The user sends request to server and i'm trying to store the session by req.session.uid="some uniqueid", and when again the same user tries for another request i'm unable to get the session. For every request a new session id is coming(session is not persisting).
please help by posting the code or by referring to already existing code.
You should call req.session.save(); at the end to persist the data.

Authentication & Sessions in express.js/sails.js

Have been working through the sails cast tutorials and am confused about the way that sessions work.
In the tutorial, the user is marked as authenticated in the session controller by:
req.session.authenticated = true;
req.session.User = user;
res.redirect('/');
Why is the session being saved in the request?! My understanding is that the 'req' object in express.js is the information the browser sends to the server.
Shouldn't the server save this information elsewhere (won't the request object be deleted when theres another request?)
Furthermore, somehow the application retrieves the authentication status from another object session when templating a page with ejs:
<% if (session.authenticated) { %>
why isn't this variable set directly?
Probably a silly question but I am confused at how the logic works and online articles/tutorials aren't helping me understand...
It is common practice for express middleware (remember, Sails is built on express) to attach properties to the req object so it may be accessed in later middleware, and eventually your controllers. What happens behind the scenes is your req object comes in with a cookie containing the session ID, and then the session middleware uses that to retrieve the actual session data from some datastore (by default, and in-memory store is used. Super fast and easy for development, but not recommended for deployment), and then attaches that to the req object.
Regarding the value of session.authenticated in your EJS, by default Sails includes req.session in res.locals (accessible in views), so that value will be whatever is stored in the session via your controller.
The browser sends over the session id which is stored on a cookie. The session object is referenced by that session id which is stored server side. The session is attached to the request (for convenience I suppose). You can read more here https://github.com/expressjs/session#compatible-session-stores
I wouldn't know what is setting session.authenticated without seeing more code.

Node, express, passport - updating session after updating record

I'm rather new to node, I have started writing a small app and am working on my user auth and profile. I'm using express, passport and ejs. I've got passport working and have my user redirecting to a profile page that requires additional data before the user begin's to use the application. My question is:
What's the proper way to update the user's session (created at passport.authentication) when a user updates their profile data? I would like to update the user session in order to hit it rather than the data base for basic user data.
If your using express you have middleware that looks like:
function (res, req, next){}
When you get session data you can add it to the req object.
function (res, req, next){
// get the session here...
req.session = session;
}
Then any other middleware will have access to the req.session object which will contain the user's session.

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