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Authentication middleware for Deno


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Features

  • A Dashport class that handles authentication and serialization.
  • A local strategy module.
  • Strategy modules that allow developers to use third-party OAuth 2.0
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  • Written in TypeScript.

Overview

Dashport is a module that simplifies authentication in Deno. Currently, the server framework being utilized is Oak, but Dashport has been modularized so additional frameworks can be easily added as competitors to Oak appear.

Dashport was inspired by Passport, the golden standard of authentication middleware for Node.js.

Getting Started

To get started, import Dashport. For easier configuration, import Dashport into its own file.

import Dashport from 'https://deno.land/x/dashport@v1.0.0/mod.ts';

Next, instantiate Dashport, passing in the name of the server framework being used (Dashport currently only supports Oak). Then begin adding configurations for a serializer, deserializer, and strategy. Any errors returned from serializers and deserializers should be instances of ‘Error’.

// 'dashportconfig.ts' file

import Dashport from 'https://deno.land/x/dashport@v1.0.0/mod.ts';
import GoogleStrategy from 'https://deno.land/x/dashport_google@v1.0.0/mod.ts';

const dashport = new Dashport('oak');

dashport.addSerializer('serializer-1', (userInfo) => {
  const serializedId = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000);
  userInfo.id = serializedId;

  try {
    const exampleUser = await exampleDbCreateUpsert(userInfo);
    return serializedId;
  } catch(err) {
    return err;
    // or return new Error(err);
  }
});

dashport.addDeserializer('deserializer-1', (serializedId) => {
  try {
    const exampleUserInfo = await exampleDbFind({ id: serializedId });
    return userInfo;
  } catch(err) {
    return err;
    // or return new Error(err);
  }
});

dashport.addStrategy('goog', new GoogleStrategy({
  client_id: 'client-id-here',
  redirect_uri: 'redirect-uri-here', 
  response_type: 'response-type-here', 
  scope: 'scopes-wanted-here',
  client_secret: 'client-secret-here',
  grant_type: 'grant-type-here',
}));

export default dashport;

Dashport then needs to be initialized in the server file.

import { Application, Router } from 'https://deno.land/x/oak@v6.3.1/mod.ts';
import dashport from './dashportconfig.ts';

const app = new Application();
const router = new Router();

app.use(dashport.initialize);

app.use(router.routes());
app.use(router.allowedMethods());

Dashport is now ready to authenticate. Dashport’s authenticate method acts as middleware, so it can be used like so with Oak: 

router.get('/privatepage', 
  dashport.authenticate('goog'),
  async (ctx: any, next: any) => {
    ctx.body = 'This is a private page!';
  }
)

After authentication, Dashport will have serialized the user information that was returned using the developer’s defined serializer and created a session. In order to get the user information in another route, Dashport’s deserialize property can be used as middleware. If the framework being used is Oak, deserialize will store either the user information or an Error on ctx.locals for the next middleware to access.

router.get('/user-favorites', 
  dashport.deserialize,
  async (ctx: any, next: any) => {
    const displayName = ctx.locals.displayName;
    ctx.body = `Welcome ${displayName}!`;
  }
)

In order to end a session, a log out button can be routed to an endpoint that calls Dashport’s logOut property. Here’s an example use with Oak:

router.get('/log-out',
  dashport.logOut,
  async (ctx: any, next: any) => {
    ctx.body = `You've logged out";
  }
)

Methods

initialize

  • Functionality depends on the server framework that was passed in when instantiating Dashport.
  • Initialize is an asynchronous middleware function that creates a persistent Dashport object across multiple HTTP requests. For Oak, Dashport takes advantage of the persistent ctx.state and adds a Dashport key to it. This bypasses the need to do any monkey patching.
// Oak example

import { Application, Router } from 'https://deno.land/x/oak@v6.3.1/mod.ts';
import Dashport from 'https://deno.land/x/dashport@v1.0.0/mod.ts';

const app = new Application();
const dashport = new Dashport('oak');

// use addSerializer, addDeserializer, and addStrategy, to add a serializer, deserializer, and strategy, to the Dashport instance

app.use(dashport.initialize);

authenticate

  • Functionality depends on the server framework that was passed in when instantiating Dashport.
  • Authenticate is the asynchronous middleware function that powers Dashport. It takes in one argument: the name of the strategy to be used. Authenticate first checks if a session exists. If a session does not exist, it begins the authentication process for the specified strategy.
// Oak example

import { Application, Router } from 'https://deno.land/x/oak@v6.3.1/mod.ts';
import Dashport from 'https://deno.land/x/dashport@v1.0.0/mod.ts';

const app = new Application();
const router = new Router();
const dashport = new Dashport('oak');

// use addSerializer, addDeserializer, and addStrategy, to add a serializer, deserializer, and strategy, to the Dashport instance

app.use(dashport.initialize);

app.use(router.routes());
app.use(router.allowedMethods());

router.get('/privatepage', 
  dashport.authenticate('name-of-strategy-added'),
  async (ctx: any, next: any) => {
    ctx.body = 'This is a private page!';
  }
)

addSerializer

  • After a successful authentication, Dashport will pass the obtained user information to a serializer. It is up to the developer to define serializer functions that specify what to do with user information. User information will be passed in the form of Dashport’s defined AuthData interface.
  • addSerializer is a function that takes two arguments. The first argument is the name a developer wants to call their serializer and the second argument is the serializer function. Serializer functions need to
    1. Accept one argument: the user data in the form of an object.
    2. Specify what the developer wants to do with the user data (store it in a database, add some info to response object, etc).
    3. Specify how to create a serialized ID.
    4. Return the serialized ID or an Error.
dashport.addSerializer('serializer-1', (userInfo) => {
  const serializedId = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000);
  userInfo.id = serializedId;

  try {
    const exampleUser = await exampleDbCreateUpsert(userInfo);
    return serializedId;
  } catch(err) {
    return err;
    // or return new Error(err);
  }
});

removeSerializer

  • removeSerializer is a function that takes one argument: the name of the serializer to be removed.
dashport.removeSerializer('serializer-1');

addDeserializer

  • Deserializers are developer-defined functions that take in a serialized ID and return the user information that the developer wants to access in the next middleware. The shape of the return value is up to the developer.
  • addDeserializer is a function that takes two arguments. The first argument is the name a developer wants to call their deserializer and the second argument is the deserializer function. Deserializer functions need to
    1. Take in one argument: the serialized ID.
    2. Specify what the developer wants to do with the serialized ID to obtain user info (e.g. fetch the user info from a database).
    3. Return the user info or an Error.
dashport.addDeserializer('deserializer-1', (serializedId) => {
  try {
    const userInfo = await exampleDbFind({ id: serializedId });
    return userInfo;
  catch(err) {
    return err;
    // or return new Error(err);
  }
})

deserialize

  • Functionality depends on the server framework that was passed in when instantiating Dashport.
  • deserialize is an asynchronous middleware function that checks if a session exists. If a session exists, it checks if the session IDs match. If they do, it will execute the first deserializer added by the developer and store the user information for the next middleware to use. In Oak, if the deserialization is successful, the user information is stored on ctx.locals. If the deserialization is not successful, an Error will be stored on ctx.locals.
router.get('/user-favorites', 
  dashport.deserialize,
  async (ctx: any, next: any) => {
    const displayName = ctx.locals.displayName;
    ctx.body = `Welcome ${displayName}!`;
  }
)

removeDeserializer

  • removeDeserializer is a function that takes one argument. It will remove a deserializer by name that was added.
dashport.removeDeserializer('deserializer-1');

addStrategy

  • Strategies are the modules that can be imported with Dashport to allow third-party OAuth. They specify the authentication logic for the given OAuth service provider.
  • addStrategy is a function that takes two arguments. The first argument is the name the developer wants to call the strategy. The second argument is a new instance of the strategy with its options passed in. Strategy classes need to:
    1. Have a router method that ultimately returns an Error or the user information returned by the third-party OAuth in the form of Dashport’s defined AuthData interface. AuthData needs to have a userInfo property in the form of UserProfile and a tokenData property in the form of TokenData.
    2. Take in any options that are needed for the specific third-party OAuth to authenticate.
dashport.addStrategy('goog', new GoogleStrategy({
  client_id: 'client-id-here',
  redirect_uri: 'redirect-uri-here', 
  response_type: 'response-type-here', 
  scope: 'scopes-wanted-here',
  client_secret: 'client-secret-here',
  grant_type: 'grant-type-here',
}));

removeStrategy

  • removeStrategy is a function that takes one parameter: the name of the strategy to remove.
dashport.removeStrategy('goog');

logOut

  • Functionality depends on the server framework that was passed in when instantiating Dashport.
  • logOut is an asynchronous middleware function that ends a session. If a user logs out and logOut is used, the user will have to reauthenticate. Here is an example use with Oak:
router.get('/log-out',
  dashport.logOut,
  async (ctx: any, next: any) => {
    ctx.body = `You've logged out";
  }
)

AuthData

When a strategy successfully authenticates a user, the information given by the third-party provider should be returned on the AuthData object. This object should have a tokenData property and a userInfo property in the form of UserProfile. This contains the information for the authenticate method to use. The interface for AuthData is:

interface AuthData {
  tokenData: TokenData;
  userInfo: UserProfile;
}

TokenData

Any relevant token data the developer wishes to receive from the third-party OAuth should be stored in an object with the below interface:

interface TokenData {
  access_token: string;
  expires_in: number;
  scope: string;
  token_type: string;
  id_token: string;
}

UserProfile

Since every OAuth provider returns information in different names and shapes, it is up to each strategy to conform the data returned into Dashport’s defined UserProfile interface. This should contain all data the developer wishes to use.

export interface UserProfile {
  provider: string;
  providerUserId: string;
  displayName?: string;
  name?: {
    familyName?: string;
    givenName?: string;
    middleName?: string;
  };
  emails?: Array<string>;
}

Stretch Features

  • Merge deserialize’s functionality into authenticate.
  • Currently only the first serializers and deserializers added are able to be used by Dashport. Add the option to use specific serializers and deserializers by name.
  • Extend serializerization and deserializerization process to be able to use multiple serializers and deserializers.
  • Add more strategies.
  • Add support for other server frameworks.