GET request from app with http basic authentication (node.js) - node.js

Question

I have an nodejs app which use the http basic authentication in express.js.
In this app I make an http.get request to an external webpage to load and parse the html.
With the basic auth I get in each http.get(url, function(){}) request to the external host an error: "Unauthorized". If I remove the basic authentication, it works fine.
Anybody know's why I'm Unauthorized at an public resource if only my own server has this authentication?
e.g. (pseudocode):
with the express basic authentication, I'm getting "Unauthorized" as body from google.com. without the auth, I get the html
var auth = express.basicAuth(function(user, pass, callback) {
var result = (user === 'john' && pass === 'doe') ? true : false;
callback(null, result);
});
app.configure(function(){
app.use("/", auth, function(next) { next(); });
app.use("/", express.static(__dirname+'/html'));
});
http.get('http://google.com', function(res) {
res.setEncoding('utf8');
var body = '';
res.on('data', function (chunk) {
body = body + chunk;
});
res.on('end', function() {
cb(body);
});
}).on('error', function(err) {
cb('error', err);
});

Answer 1

You need to restructure your app to have your call to Google done inside a callback, after a GET is issued to your server. Here's working code:
var express = require('express');
var request = require('request');
var app = express();
// Authenticator
app.use(express.basicAuth('john', 'doe'));
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
request.get('http://www.google.com', function (err, response, body) {
res.send(body)
});
});
app.listen(process.env.PORT || 8080);
Here are details if you want to do fancier basic authentication: http://blog.modulus.io/nodejs-and-express-basic-authentication
It appears that you're trying to write code synchronously, which will not work. I recommend reading this article for a review of idiomatic Node: http://blog.ponyfoo.com/2013/07/12/teach-yourself-nodejs-in-10-steps

Answer 2

For HTTP Basic/Digest authentication you can also use http-auth module
var express = require('express');
var request = require('request');
// Authentication module.
var auth = require('http-auth');
var basic = auth.basic({
realm: "Simon Area.",
file: __dirname + "/../data/users.htpasswd" // gevorg:gpass, Sarah:testpass ...
});
// Application setup.
var app = express();
app.use(auth.connect(basic));
// Setup route.
app.get('/', function(req, res){
request.get('http://www.google.com', function (err, response, body) {
res.send(body)
});
});