How do I connect to my Heroku postgreSQL database to authenticate users?

Question

I have created a basic login page using React with a button for users to click and log in. I also set up a postgreSQL database of username and passwords on my Heroku server. Now, I just need to authenticate users by checking if the inputted credentials match what is in my database. I tried to do this in the Authenticate() function. Also, Authenticate() is being called in the button via onClick.

Right now, I have basic authentication using jQuery Ajax set up (thanks to this Stackoverflow post: Use basic authentication with jQuery and Ajax). However, when I press the button on my page, nothing happens.

Because I haven't specified my URL! But... I don't have a URL because it's a database on a server. Also, how am I going to check through my database to see if there's a match? Finally, I will need to reroute the user to another page if it is a success.

Authenticate() {
var email = $("#email").val();
var password = $("#password").val();

$.ajax({
  // Adds a HTTP header with the Authentication information
  beforeSend: function(xhr) {
    xhr.setRequestHeader(
      "Authorization",
      "Basic " + btoa(email + ":" + password)
    );
  },
  type: "GET",
  url: "",
  dataType: "json",
  async: false,
  data: '{"email": "' + email + '", "password" : "' + password + '"}',
  // Successful authentication
  success: function() {
    alert("Successfully authenticated!"); // TODO: Set appropriate auth cookie
  },
  // Display error message
  complete: function(jqXHR) {
    // 401: Unauthorized
    if (jqXHR.status == "401") {
      var message = jqXHR.status + " : " + jqXHR.statusText;
      alert(message);
    }
  }
});

}

I am a bit of a noob, hence why I have so many questions. Please bear with me. Thanks!

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 04 '19 at 08:04

so first you have to set up a connection to your database somewhere in your code.

you might be inclined to create a folder and call it maybe db. Here you would set up a connection using an npm package called pg. so npm i pg you can also install a very useful package called dotenv.

After doing this go into your db folder and create a file named db.config

How do I connect to my Heroku postgreSQL database to authenticate users?

1 Answers1