Express.js Integration Guide for Passwordless Authentication with DID.app

Just want the code? Find this example on github

What is DID.app

Me and my cofounder have been building DID so that we can all stop using passwords. Most of us have too many passwords and we don't like using them

DID.app is an Identity Provider, that authenticates users by verifying access to either an email address or securely stored private key.

This allows your users to sign in with just a single click.

Requirements

This tutorial will require you to have Node.js and Express installed.

New Express project

Use the Express generator to start a new project.

npx express-generator --view=pug myapp
cd myapp
npm install

Install

openid-client

and

cookie-session

from npm.

npm install --save openid-client cookie-session

Add sessions to the application

We will use cookie-session so that we can keep a user signed in after we have authenticated them.

To use it, require the module and add to the apps middleware in

app.js

// other dependencies
var cookieSession = require("cookie-session");

// other middleware
var { SESSION_SECRET } = process.env;
app.use(cookieSession({ name: "myapp", secret: SESSION_SECRET }));

It is best practise to keep your session secret out of your source code.

Fetch OpenID Connect configuration

Only routes for handing authentication will require the OpenID Configuration for DID.app.

Create a routes file for sessions

routes/session.js

and configure the client library.

var express = require("express");
var router = express.Router();
var { Issuer } = require("openid-client");

var { CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET } = process.env;

var clientPromise = Issuer.discover("https://did.app").then(function(issuer) {
  console.log("Discovered issuer %s %O", issuer.issuer, issuer.metadata);
  return new issuer.Client({
    client_id: CLIENT_ID,
    client_secret: CLIENT_SECRET
  });
});

// ...

The

client_id

client_secret

are fetched from the environment,

we will generate them later.

Create File for sign in routes

Signing in, or up, using the OpenID connect flow requires two endpoints.

One endpoint redirects the user to the OpenID provider (in this case DID.app) to authenticate themselves. A second callback endpoint is where the result of authenticating is handled.

Add both of these into the session routes file.

// ...

router.get("/authenticate", function(req, res, next) {
  clientPromise.then(function(client) {
    var authorizationUrl = client.authorizationUrl({
      scope: "openid",
      redirect_uri: "http://localhost:3000/session/callback"
    });
    res.redirect(authorizationUrl);
  });
});

router.get("/callback", function(req, res, next) {
  clientPromise
    .then(function(client) {
      var params = client.callbackParams(req);
      return client.callback("http://localhost:3000/session/callback", params);
    })
    .then(function(tokenSet) {
      var claims = tokenSet.claims();
      console.log(claims);
      req.session = { userId: claims.sub };
      res.redirect("/");
    });
});

module.exports = router;

Add the session routes to the express app in

app.js

// other dependencies
var sessionRouter = require("./routes/session");

// ...

app.use("/", indexRouter);
app.use("/users", usersRouter);
// new routes
app.use("/session", sessionRouter);

Display authentication status

Our users need a button that lets them sign in.

To add one to the homepage the route handler checks if there is already a user session, if so we make this user id available to the view.

Make these changes to

routes/index.js

router.get("/", function(req, res, next) {
  var session = req.session || {};
  res.render("index", { title: "Express", userId: session.userId });
});

In the view we use the user id to show them some information about them, or if no user a sign in button this code to show a button

Add this snippet into

views/index.pug

if userId
  span User ID #{userId}
else
  a.button.action(href='/session/authenticate') Sign in

Setup the App on DID

You will need a DID account. Sign up to create one now. After signing up, you will be directed to set up your first app.

Because we will run on localhost we need to use test app, select test mode.

After setting the details for the app, copy the client id and secret for use in our application.

Try it out

Start Express, passing in the required configuration as environment variables.

CLIENT_ID=test_abc \
CLIENT_SECRET=test_abcdef \
SESSION_SECRET=somesecret \
npm start

Visit localhost:3000, you should see your new Express app with a shiny sign in button.

Any problems, see this commit for the complete set of changes.

Have a question?

If you have any further questions contact us at [email protected] .

Previously published at https://dev.to/crowdhailer/express-js-integration-guide-for-passwordless-authentication-with-did-app-246p