Creating a Sails Application using Passport Authentication

1. $ mkdir sails-passport-authentication

2. $ sails new .

3. $ sails generate user

4. Populate the User model

    /api/models/User.js
   
    module.exports = {
   
      attributes: {
          firstName: {
              type: 'string'
          },
          lastName: {
              type: 'string'
          },
          email: {
              type: 'email'
          },
          provider: {
              type: 'string'
          },
          provider_id:{
          	  type: 'string'
          },
          password: {
              type: 'string'
          }
      }
   
    };
   

5. Create the passport-local login view

    /views/user/login.ejs
   
    <form action="/user/login" method="post">
        <div>
            <label>Email:</label>
            <input type="text" name="email"><br></div>
        <div>
            <label>Password:</label>
            <input type="password" name="password"></div>
        <div>
            <input type="submit" value="Submit"></div>
    </form>
   

   At this point we could run $ sails lift and access the passport-local login page by visiting http://localhost:1337/user/login

6. Create a test user

   Visit http://localhost:1337/user/create?email=test@test.com&password=12345 in a browser to create a new user with a username of test@test.com and a password of 12345

Enabling passport with local authentication requires a few steps:

1. $ npm install passport --save

2. $ npm install passport-local --save

3. Creating the passport middleware configuration file.

    /config/passport.js
   
    var passport = require('passport'),
    LocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy;
   
    passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
        done(null, user.id);
    });
   
    passport.deserializeUser(function(id, done) {
        User.findOneById(id).done(function (err, user) {
            done(err, user);
        });
    });
   
    passport.use(new LocalStrategy({
    		usernameField: 'email',
    		passwordField: 'password'
    		},
        function(email, password, done) {
        User.findOne({ email: email}).done(function(err, user) {
      		  if (err) { return done(err); }
      			if (!user) { return done(null, false, { message: 'Unknown user ' + email }); }
      			if (user.password != password) { return done(null, false, { message: 'Invalid password' }); }
      			return done(null, user);
      		});
      	}
    ));
   

4. Register the required passport connect middleware

    /config/express.js
   
    var passport = require('passport');
   
    module.exports.express = {
        customMiddleware: function (app) {
            app.use(passport.initialize());
            app.use(passport.session());
        }
    };
   

5. Create the UserController actions

    /api/controllers/UserController.js
   
    var passport = require('passport');
    module.exports = {
        login: function (req,res)
        {
            res.view();
        },
   
        passport_local: function(req, res)
        {
            passport.authenticate('local', function(err, user, info)
            {
                if ((err) || (!user))
                {
                    res.redirect('/user/login');
                    return;
                }
   
                req.logIn(user, function(err)
                {
                    if (err)
                    {
                        res.redirect('/user/login');
                        return;
                    }
   
                    res.redirect('/');
                    return;
                });
            })(req, res);
        },
   
        logout: function (req,res)
        {
            req.logout();
            res.redirect('/');
        },
   
   
   
      /**
       * Overrides for the settings in `config/controllers.js`
       * (specific to UserController)
       */
      _config: {}
   
   
    };
   

6. Modify routes to handle post to /user/login.

    /config/routes.js
   
    module.exports.routes = {
        '/': {
            view: 'home/index'
        },
        'get /user/login':{
            controller: 'user',
            action: 'login'
        },
        'post /user/login':{
            controller: 'user',
            action: 'passport_local'
        }
    }
   

7. Create policy file This policy file will check that the user has been authenticated by Passport and if not it will redirect them to the login page.

    /api/policies/isAuthenticated.js
   
    module.exports = function(req, res, next) {
   
        // User is allowed, proceed to the next policy,
        // or if this is the last policy, the controller
        // Sockets
        if(req.isSocket)
        {
            if(req.session &&
                req.session.passport &&
                req.session.passport.user)
            {
                //Use this:
   
                // Initialize Passport
                sails.config.passport.initialize()(req, res, function () {
                    // Use the built-in sessions
                    sails.config.passport.session()(req, res, function () {
                        // Make the user available throughout the frontend
                        //res.locals.user = req.user;
                        //the user should be deserialized by passport now;
                        next();
                    });
                });
   
                //Or this if you dont care about deserializing the user:
                //req.user = req.session.passport.user;
                //return next();
   
            }
            else{
                res.json(401);
            }
   
   
        }
        else if (req.isAuthenticated()) {
            return next();
        }
        else{
            // User is not allowed
            // (default res.forbidden() behavior can be overridden in `config/403.js`)
            return res.redirect('/account/login');
        }
    };
   

8. Apply policy file The following configuration requires all requests to be authenticated. The only exception is requests to the user controller.

    /config/policies.js
   
    module.exports.policies = {
        '*': 'isAuthenticated',
        'user': {
            '*': true
        }
    }
   

   Running $ sails lift and attempting to access any controller other than user will redirect you to the /user/login.

   Note: Policies only apply to controllers, not views. Which means that the root ‘/’ index view will still be accessible until you put it behind a controller. https://github.com/balderdashy/sails/issues/1132

Now test your application by running $ sails lift then visiting http://localhost:1337/user/login. Just login with the email and password for the user we created initially:

• email: test@test.com
• password: 12345

You should now be redirected to the homepage.