Authentication

In this lesson, we’ll implement a basic sign-in mechanism using cookie session.

Let’s add a shared/AuthController.ts file and include the following code:

import { BackendMethod, remult } from 'remult'
import type express from 'express'
import type from 'cookie-session'

declare module 'remult' {
  export interface RemultContext {
    request?: express.Request
  }
}

export class AuthController {
  //
}

Code Explanation

• We import the necessary modules from remult and types for express and cookie-session.
• We extend the RemultContext interface to include an optional request property of type express.Request.
• Remult will automatically set the request with the current request. Since Remult works with any server framework, we need to type it to the correct server, which in this case is Express. This typing gives us access to the request object and its session, managed by cookie-session.
• This request can be accessed using remult.context.request.

Next, we’ll add a static list of users and a sign-in method. (In a real application, you would use a database, but for this tutorial, a static list will suffice.)

const validUsers = [{ name: 'Jane' }, { name: 'Alex' }]

export class AuthController {
  @BackendMethod({ allowed: true })
  static async signIn(name: string) {
    const user = validUsers.find((user) => user.name === name)
    if (user) {
      remult.user = {
        id: user.name,
        name: user.name,
      }
      remult.context.request!.session!['user'] = remult.user
      return remult.user
    } else {
      throw Error("Invalid user, try 'Alex' or 'Jane'")
    }
  }
}

Code Explanation

• We define a static list of valid users.
• The signIn method is decorated with @BackendMethod({ allowed: true }), making it accessible from the frontend.
• The method checks if the provided name exists in the validUsers list. If it does, it sets remult.user to an object that conforms to the UserInfo type from Remult and stores this user in the request session.
• If the user is not found, it throws an error.

Next, we’ll add the sign-out method:

export class AuthController {
  @BackendMethod({ allowed: true })
  static async signIn(name: string) {
    //...
  }

  @BackendMethod({ allowed: true })
  static async signOut() {
    remult.context.request!.session!['user'] = undefined
    return undefined
  }
}

Code Explanation

• The signOut method clears the user session, making the user unauthenticated.

Next, we’ll adjust the backend/index.ts file:

import express from 'express'
import session from 'cookie-session'
import { AuthController } from '../shared/AuthController'

//...

export const app = express()

app.enable('trust proxy') // required for stackblitz and other reverse proxy scenarios
app.use(
  session({
    signed: false, // only for dev on stackblitz, use secret in production
    // secret: process.env['SESSION_SECRET'] || 'my secret',
  }),
)

export const api = remultExpress({
  entities: [Task],
  controllers: [TasksController, AuthController],
  getUser: (request) => request.session?.['user'],
  //...
})

Code Explanation

• The signOut method clears the user session, making the user unauthenticated.
• We import session from cookie-session and AuthController.
• We enable trust proxy for reverse proxy scenarios like StackBlitz.
• We’ve set signed: false in the session configuration due to an issue in StackBlitz that causes problems with signed cookies. This is for development purposes only and in production, you should remove signed: false and encrypt the cookie using a secret by setting the secret option (e.g., secret: process.env['SESSION_SECRET'] || 'my secret').
• We register AuthController in the controllers array.
• We add getUser: (request) => request.session?.['user'] to extract the user from the session.

Frontend Authentication

In frontend/Auth.tsx, we’ll call the AuthController to sign in, sign out, etc.

async function signIn(f: FormEvent<HTMLFormElement>) {
  f.preventDefault()
  try {
    setCurrentUser((remult.user = await AuthController.signIn(name)))
  } catch (error) {
    alert((error as ErrorInfo).message)
  }
}

async function signOut() {
  setCurrentUser(await AuthController.signOut())
}

useEffect(() => {
  remult.initUser().then(setCurrentUser)
}, [])

Code Explanation

• The signIn function calls AuthController.signIn and sets the current user if successful.
• The signOut function calls AuthController.signOut to clear the current user.
• The useEffect hook uses the initUser method to fetch the current user when the component mounts.

Try It Out

Try signing in as Alex or Jane and verify that you can perform CRUD operations on tasks. Sign out and ensure that you can no longer access the tasks.