Nodejs Boilerplate

A powerful boilerplate for a NodeJS API with Google and Facebook Login.

NodeJs Api Boilerplate

A boilerplate for NodeJs Rest Api. Implements a clean structure, with the best practices for authentication, including OAuth for Google Login and Facebook Login.

You probably know how hard it is to start a node js API, with a well structured and clean code. Especially if you are on a rush for an hackhaton or a school project. I give you here a clean code, that implements what is essential for a new API project : a clean nodejs structure implementing a user system following the best practices.

You can directly plug this API with the client of your choice by calling the different endpoints. I also give details on how to extend this code to adapt it for your project.

This API can be used with any client, here is the client I have developed with ReactJS to interact with this API.

Features

(STILL IN DEVELOMENT) The entity example in this repo is users, but it can be easily applied to articles, messages, ...

• Secure Authentification with email/password using JWT
• OAuth 2.0 Authentication via Facebook, Google, GitHub, LinkedIn, Instagram
• Clean Structure Component Oriented
• Templates to create your own entities
• Get Entity
• List Entity
• Patch Entity
• Delete Entity
• Use Passport
• Easy-to-use endpoints
• Middlewares to ensure authentification and permission to access resources.
• Implemented unit test
• Posts

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Please make sure that you have:

• node.js installed (https://nodejs.org/)

Cloning the repo

The easiest way to get started is to clone the repository:

# Get the latest snapshot
git clone https://github.com/valentinchelle/nodejs-rest-api-boilerplate.git myproject

# Change directory
cd myproject

# Install NPM dependencies
npm install

# Then simply start your app
npm start

Configuration of the environment

To use all the functionnalities, you will need to set the environment variables.

Firstly, add a file named .env at the root of the folder (same level as index.js), copy paste the following template and save it. You can change the value of JWT_SECRET to something else to make it more secure.

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=googleclientid.apps.googleusercontent.com
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=googleclientsecret
FACEBOOK_CLIENT_ID=fbclientid
FACEBOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=fbclientsecret
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://{user}:{password}@cluster0-ukuem.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority
JWT_SECRET=randomString123

The three next steps will help you filling the other value of the .env file.

Setup : MongoDB

• Create a new account on https://cloud.mongodb.com/ and choose the free plan
• On the homepage, click on _Connect > Connect your application > _
• Copy the Connection String, replace by your actual password, and paste in the .env as MONGO_URI

Setup : OAuth for Facebook Login

• Go on https://developers.facebook.com/apps and create a new app
• Add Facebook Login to its products
• In the settings of the Facebook Login Product
• If your servers runs locally, make sure the facebook app is in development mode
• If not, add url-of-server:port/api/auth/facebook/callback in the field Valid OAuth Redirect URIs
• Grab your Client ID and Client Secret in Settings>Basic
• Fill the .env at the root of the server with these credentials

Setup : OAuth for Google Login

• Go on https://console.cloud.google.com/ and create a new app
• Add Credentials > OAuth client ID
• In Authorized JavaScript origins, enter http://server:port ( for me http://127.0.0.1:5000)
• In Authorized redirect URIs, enter http://server:5000/api/auth/google/callback ( for me http://localhost:5000/api/auth/google/callback)
• Grab your Client ID and Client Secret on the same page
• Fill the .env at the root of the server with these credentials

Structure

The structure of this boilerplate follows the guideines of the component oriented structure : Each component corresponds to a folder, and follows an Model Controller Middlewares sub structure :

• models for the database entities ( like users ). It is where the schema, and the communication with the table are defined (like UserModelfindById).
• controllers/ for the actions on the models, that call the models actions ( like the management of the list of the users).
• middlewares/ intermediaries between the request and the response. Usually uses and modifies the request body parameters.
• routes.js for the definition of the endpoints for each actions of the controllers. Defines also what are the middleware used for the routes.

The global logic for an app calling this rest API :

1. The client will call an API route ( like url/api/users/modifyuser )
2. The router makes the request pass through middlewares ( like isConnected()) to validate the request
3. The router feeds the controller by calling one of its action ( like modifyUser()).
4. The controller action access the model ( the database ) to modify/access a record in the table.
5. The controller ends up by returning a response

Api Endpoints

Endpoints for the authentification

Endpoints for Entities ( Users )

This is the usual API endpoints for a given entity ( here the users ):

Routes Middlewares

The middlewares are used to validate a request. In this boilerplate, it is mainly used here to make sure the user has the permission to access the route. Here is the list of the different middleware and where they are implemented.

It is then very easy to use, as shown in this example :

const AuthMiddleware = require("../auth/middlewares/auth.middleware");
const PermissionsMiddleware = require("../users/middlewares/permissions.middlewares");
router.delete("/:userId", [
  AuthMiddleware.validJWTNeeded,
  PermissionsMiddleware.minimumPermissionLevelRequired(ADMIN),
  UsersController.removeById
]);

Useful

Specific

Understanding the login logic

What is a JWT ?

Our authentifcation system relies on a JWT, JSON Web Tokens. The idea is to encode the user information, and to load all the communication between the server and the frontend with this token. This token has usually an expire date.

A simple overview would be :

// ----------- SERVER SIDE -----------
const User = { name: "John", age: 21}
const jwt = encode(User, expireIn = 60 ); // will expire in 60 seconds
send_jwt_to_client();
// ----------- CLIENT SIDE -----------
const jwt = receive_jwt_from_server();
const User = decode(jwt);
>>> console.log(User)
{
  "name": "John",
  "age" : 21,
  "iat": 1516239022
}

The authentication steps

Authenticate a user

Here is the different request between the server and the font end to handle the authentication.

1. The user enters its credentials on the client
2. The client sends the credentials to the server
3. The server compares the credentials with the database
4. The server sends back to the client a jwt token ( containing information about the user ) and a refresh token
5. The client extracts the token, sets the Authorization Headers of the next requests to Bearer + token_value

Give Access

Now that the client registered the jwt tokenand the refresh token, let's say the user tries to access a protected resource

6. the client sends a request to the server, with the jwt token in Authorization headers
7. the server checks the validity of the jwt token, and if it is valid, returns a result

Refresh the token

The subititly is that for the system to be secure enough, the jwt token is encrypted with a limited lifetime. If the client detects that the jwt token is expired, it needs a new one. Here is the process :

1. The client sends the expired jwt token along with the refresh token
2. The server checks the validity of the refresh token, and generates a new jwt token
3. The server sends back the same refresh token and the new jwt token

Step 1 : Login with credentials

The first step in the login process, is for a registered user to send its email/passsword. Endpoint : endpoint:3600/auth Body :

{
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "secret"
}

If the login credentials are right, the response should be like:

{
  "accessToken": "eyJhbGcidOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VySWQiOiI1ZTIzNjRlZDQ4NDE2YzY2ZjYwMGIwYjgiLCJlbWFpbCI6InZhbGVudGluLmNoZWxsZTNAZ21haWwuY29tIiwicGVybWlzc2lvbkxldmVsIjoxLCJwcm92aWRlciI6ImVtYWlsIiwibmFtZSI6InVuZGVmaW5lZCB1bmRlZmluZWQiLCJyZWZyZXNoS2V5IjoiRUlVUk12NENQKytOZitzSHRnZThFZz09IiwiaWF0IjoxNTc5Mzc5NTY1fQ.jBIa5DNI0ObjVW7i3qF68XguKxuw_4lLmr-5S15rOp4",
  "refreshToken": "RFZJZE5YRWldTS3B2bWtUUlByaVZUeVJNTVFyYko5Sm80OUsycWtYUU9PYlFuQURCYkh4K202YWxnd2IybmFiRkQ0TWl2TElQemJKeGUrQ3FpdXVmR3c9PQ=="
}

The access token is the famous json web token. It is a stateless string that will allow someone to stay logged everytime they provide this token to the server.

Step 2 : Stay logged with the JWT

In order to make your users stay logged on your app, you have to provide the jwt for each request. To do that, on the client side, grab the accessToken from the previous request, prefix it with Bearer and add it to the request headers under Authorization. This will be required for every route with the middleware ValidationMiddleware.validJWTNeeded like :

  app.patch("/users/:userId", [
    ValidationMiddleware.validJWTNeeded,
    PermissionMiddleware.minimumPermissionLevelRequired(FREE),
    PermissionMiddleware.onlySameUserOrAdminCanDoThisAction,
    UsersController.patchById
  ]);

Security Concerns

At the end of the OAuth, the jwt is sent via a get request to the client, so it could possibly appear in the history/logs of the server...

References

Encrypting the passwords : https://github.com/goldbergyoni/nodebestpractices/tree/security-best-practices-section#-68-avoid-using-the-nodejs-crypto-library-for-passwords-use-bcrypt

Credits

This project has been largely inspired by the following work : https://github.com/gothinkster/node-express-realworld-example-app/blob/master/routes/api/articles.js

https://github.com/makinhs/rest-api-tutorial

• https://www.toptal.com/nodejs/secure-rest-api-in-nodejs

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