Nodejs Express3 using sessions to check if user is logged in

Question

I have the following app.js code

app.configure(function(){
  app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
  app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
  app.enable('jsonp callback');
  app.set('view engine', 'jade');
  app.set('view options', {layout : false});
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(express.cookieParser());
  app.use(express.session({
    secret : 'abcdefg'      
  }));
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
  app.use(function(req, res, next){
    res.locals.user = req.session.user;
    next();
  })

});

I'm trying to make it so that the following code on my .jade view will work

- if(session.user)
          div#logoutsection.pull-right
            a#logout-btn.btn.btn-info.pull-right.top-bar-form-button(href='logout/') Logout
            p#loginprompt.pull-right.login-prompt #{session.user.username} logged In
        - else
          ul.pull-right
            li
          a#signup-btn.btn.pull-right.top-bar-form-button(href='#signup-modal', data-toggle="modal") Sign Up

So if they are not signed in, provide the option to sign up, and if they are signed in, tell them they are 'logged in'. I added in the function at the end of the app.configure code as before it was using dynamicHelpers() I was told that cookieParser() was the way to go, but how would I code this in so that I could check whether my user was logged in and provide their username as I am trying to above?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks!

EDIT: index.js

'use strict'

var util = require('util');
var Logger = require('devnull');
var logger = new Logger({namespacing : 0});
var User  = require('../schemas/User');
var Post = require('../schemas/Post');

/**
  * Get Meta information about all the Post's
  */
var getAllMeta = function(req, res, next){
  Post.getAllMeta(function(err, postsList){
    if(!err && postsList){
      req.postsList = postsList;
    }
    next(err);
  });
};

/**
  * validate the signup credentials entered by the user
  * @param {String} username 
  * @param {String} pass1 : first password
  * @param {String} pass2 : verification password
  */
var validateUserData = function(username, pass1, pass2){
  if(pass1.trim() !== pass2.trim()){
    util.log('Passwords not Matching ' + pass1 + ' ' + pass2);
    return 'Passwords not Matching';
  }
  return '';
  //put any other validations here
};

/*
 * GET home page.
 */
module.exports = function(app){
  /**
    * Map the URL '/' to the callback
    */
  app.get('/', function(req, res){
    logger.log('Serving request for url [GET]' + req.route.path)
    Post.getAll(function(err, allPosts){
      if(!err && allPosts){
        res.render('index', {'allPosts' : allPosts});
      }else{
        util.log('Error fetching posts from database : ' + err);
        res.render('error');
      }
    });
  });

  /**
    * Map the URL '/login' to the callback
    */
  app.post('/login', function(req, res){
    logger.log('Serving request for url [POST] ' + req.route.path);
    var username = req.body.User;
    var password = req.body.Password;

    User.validateUser(username, password, function(err, user){
      if(err && !user){
        res.json({
          retStatus : 'failure'  
        });
      }else{
        console.log(user);
        req.session.user = user;
        res.json({
          retStatus : 'success',
          user : user ,
        });
      }
    });
  });

  /**
    * Logout the current user and clear the session
    */
  app.get('/logout', function(req, res){
    logger.log('Serving request for url [GET] ' + req.route.path);
    req.session.user = undefined;
    res.redirect('/');
  });

  /**
    * Add a new User to database
    */
  app.post('/signup', function(req, res){
    util.log('Serving request for url [POST] ' + req.route.path);
    var signupForm = req.body.signupForm;
    var username = signupForm.username;
    var pass1 = signupForm.pass1;
    var pass2 = signupForm.pass2;

    var validateMsg = validateUserData(username, pass1, pass2);
    if(validateMsg !== ''){
      res.json({
        'retStatus' : 'failure',
        'message' : validateMsg
      });
    }else{
      var newUser = new User();
      newUser.username = username;
      newUser.password = pass1;

      newUser.save(function(err, savedUser){
        var message = '';
        var retStatus = '';
        if(!err){
          util.log('Successfully created new user with Username : ' + username);
          message = 'Successfully created new user : ' + username;
          retStatus = 'success';
          req.session.user = savedUser;
        }else{
          util.log('Error while creating user : ' + username + ' error : ' + util.inspect(err));
          if(err.code === 11000){
            message = "User already exists";
          }
          retStatus = 'failure';
        }
        res.json({
          'retStatus' : retStatus,
          'message' : message
        });
      });
    }
  });

  app.get('/admin', getAllMeta, function(req, res){
    util.log('Serving request for url [GET] ' + req.route.path);    
    if(req.session.user){
      res.render('post', {'postsList' : req.postsList});
    }else{
      res.redirect('/');
    }
  });

  /**
    * Save the post to database
    */
  app.post('/admin/save/post', function(req, res){
    var postContent = req.body.postContent;

    if(postContent.postKey === '' || postContent.postKey === undefined){
      var post = new Post();
      post.subject  = postContent.postSubject;
      post.content  = postContent.postContent;
      post.author   = req.session.user.username;
      post.tags     = postContent.postTags;

      post.save(function(err, response){
        if(!err && response){
          util.log('Successfully saved Post with id : ' + response.id);
          res.json({
            'retStatus' : 'success',
            'data' : response
          })
        }else{
          util.log('Error saving the Post : ' + err);
          res.json({
          'retStatus' : 'failure',
            'error' : err
          });
        }
      });
    }else{
      var conditions = {'key' : postContent.postKey};
      var update = {
        'subject' : postContent.postSubject,
        'content' : postContent.postContent,
        'tags' : postContent.postTags
      };

      Post.update(conditions, update, null, function(err, numAffected){
        if(!err && numAffected){
          util.log('Successfully updated the Post with id : ' + postContent.postKey);
          res.json({
            'retStatus' : 'success',
            'numAffected' : numAffected
          });
        }else{
          util.log('Error updating the Post with id : ' + postContent.postKey + ' ' + err);
          res.json({
            'retStatus' : 'failure'
          });
        }
      });
    }
  });

  app.get('/post/show/:key', function(req, res){
    Post.findByKey(req.params.key, function(err, postData){
      if(!err && postData){
      postData = postData[0];
        res.json({
          'retStatus' : 'success',
          'postData' : postData
        });
      }else{
        util.log('Error in fetching Post by key : ' + req.params.key);
        res.json({
          'retStatuts' : 'failure',
          'msg' : 'Error in fetching Post by key ' + req.params.key
        });
      }
    }); 
  });

  app.post('/admin/save/', function(req, res){
    //container for saving a post
  });

  app.get('/admin/remove/:key', function(req, res){
    //container for deleting a post
  });

  app.get('/contact', function(req, res){
    util.log('Serving request for url[GET] ' + req.route.path);
    res.render('contact');
  });
};

User.js

'use strict'

var util    = require('util');
var bcrypt  = require('bcrypt');
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Schema   = mongoose.Schema;

var validatePresenceOf = function(value){
  return value && value.length; 
};

var toLower = function(string){
  return string.toLowerCase();
};

var User = new Schema({
  'username' : { type : String, 
              validate : [validatePresenceOf, 'a Username is required'],
              set : toLower,
              index : { unique : true }
              },
  'password' : String,
});

User.statics.findUser = function(username, password, cb){
  return  this.find({'username' : username}, cb);
};

User.statics.validateUser = function(username, password, cb){
  this.find({'username' : username}, function(err, response){
    var user = response[0];
    if(!user || response.length === 0){
      cb(new Error('AuthFailed : Username does not exist'));
    }else{
      if(password == user.password){
        util.log('Authenticated User ' + username);
        cb(null, user);
      }else{
        cb(new Error('AuthFailed : Invalid Password'));
      }
    }
  });
};

module.exports = mongoose.model('User' , User);

Answer 1

Maybe I'm understanding your question wrong, but the only thing you are missing is a route, where you authenticate the user, e.g.:

app.post('/login', function(req, res){
  if(req.body.user == 'Ryan' && req.body.password == 'Dahl'){
    req.session.user = aUserIdOrUserObject;
    res.send(200) // or redirect
  }
};          

This is hust pseudo code. You obviously want to check if user and password match against your database.

The second point you are missing is a permanent session store like https://github.com/masylum/connect-mongodb or https://github.com/CarnegieLearning/connect-mysql-session. The memory store is only usefull for development, in production this could kill your server.

Answer 2

What I do in the app I work, and in order to not have to do this validation in every controller action, is:

//userValidation.js
module.exports = function(req, res, next){
    if(req.body.user == 'Ryan' && req.body.password == 'Dahl'){
        next();
    }else res.send("Not auth");
}

//controller.js
var validate = require("./userValidation");

app.post("/route", validate, function(req, res){
    //if execution get to this point you are sure that user is authenticated.
});

This code is also from the App I work, this is how we set the session to work. For dev purposes you can replace MongoStore with a MemoryStore.

app.configure(function(){
        app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
        app.set('view engine', 'jade');

        app.use(connect.compress());
        app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/public", { maxAge: 6000000 }));
        app.use(express.favicon(__dirname + "/public/img/favicon.ico", { maxAge: 6000000 }));    
        app.use(express.bodyParser());
        app.use(express.methodOverride());
        app.use(express.cookieParser());
        app.use(express.session({
            secret: config.sessionSecret,
            maxAge: new Date(Date.now() + (1000 * 60 * 15)),
            store: new MongoStore({ url: config.database.connectionString })
        }));
        app.use(function(req, res, next){
            console.log("\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{   REQUEST   }~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~".cyan);
            res.locals.config = config;
            res.locals.session = req.session;
            res.locals.utils = viewUtils;
            next();
        });
        app.use(app.router);
        app.use(function(req, res, next){
            res.status(404).send("Resource not found");
        });
});

In order to set the user in the session we have this:

var User = require("../utils/modelRegistrar").user; //any way to get the User model
var userRepository = require("../domain/repositories/usuarioRepository");
var hash = require("../utils/hash");

module.exports.init = function(app, io){
    app.publicPost("/login", login);
    app.put("/exit", exit);
};

function login(req, res){
    var dadosDeLogin = req.body.dadosDeLogin; 
    userRepository.autenticar(dadosDeLogin.login, /*hash.md5(*/dadosDeLogin.senha/*)*/, function(err, user){
        if(err) req.next(err);
        if(user){
            user.lastAcess = new Date();
            user.access++;

            userRepository.update(user, ["lastAcess", "acess"], function(err){
                if(err) req.next(err);
                else{
                    req.session.logedUser = user;
                    res.redirect("/home");
                }
            });
        }
        else res.redirect("/#user-not-found");
    });
};

function exit(req, res){
    if(req.session.logedUser) delete req.session.logedUser;
    res.redirect("/");
}

May some part of the code is still in portuguese