Node Reference - PropelAuth Docs

Node Reference

PropelAuth's Node library provides all the building blocks you need to add authentication to your Node projects. You should prefer the Express, Next.js App Router, Next.js Pages Router libraries if you are using those frameworks, as they provide a more first-class experience, however, this library can be used in any Node project.

Installation

npm install @propelauth/node

Initialize

initBaseAuth performs a one-time initialization of the library. It will verify your apiKey is correct and fetch the metadata needed to verify access tokens in validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass.

In serverless environments, it's beneficial to skip the fetch, in which case you can pass in manualTokenVerificationMetadata instead of having the library fetch it.

import { initBaseAuth } from '@propelauth/node';

const {
    validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass,
    fetchUserMetadataByUserId,
    // ...
} = initBaseAuth({
    authUrl: "REPLACE_ME",
    apiKey: "REPLACE_ME",
});

Protect API Routes

After initializing auth, you can verify access tokens by passing it in the Authorization header (formatted Bearer TOKEN) to validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass. You can see more information about the User Class here.

const authorizationHeader = // Get the Authorization header from an HTTP request
try {
    const user = await validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass(authorizationHeader)
    console.log(`Got request from user ${user.userId}`);
} catch (err) {
    // You can return a 401, or continue the request knowing it wasn't sent from a logged-in user
    console.log(`Unauthorized request ${err}`);
}

Verifying the access token doesn't require an external request.

Authorization / Organizations

You can also verify which organizations the user is in, and which roles and permissions they have in each organization all through the User Class.

Check Org Membership

Verify that the request was made by a valid user and that the user is a member of the specified organization.

const authorizationHeader = // Get the Authorization header from an HTTP request
const orgId = // get the orgId from somewhere, such as the request URL
try {
    const user = await validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass(authorizationHeader)
    const org = user.getOrg(orgId)
    if (!org) {
        // return a 403
    }
    console.log(`Got request from user ${user.userId} for org ${org.orgName}`);
} catch (err) {
    // You can return a 401, or continue the request knowing it wasn't sent from a logged-in user
    console.log(`Unauthorized request ${err}`);
}

Check Org Membership and Role

Similar to checking org membership, but will also verify that the user has a specific Role in the organization.

A user has a Role within an organization. By default, the available roles are Owner, Admin, or Member, but these can be configured. These roles are also hierarchical, so Owner > Admin > Member.

const authorizationHeader = // Get the Authorization header from an HTTP request
const orgId = // get the orgId from somewhere, such as the request URL
try {
    const user = await validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass(authorizationHeader)
    const org = user.getOrg(orgId)
    if (!org || !org.isRole("Admin")) {
        // return a 403
    }
    console.log(`Got request from Admin user ${user.userId} for org ${org.orgName}`);
} catch (err) {
    // You can return a 401, or continue the request knowing it wasn't sent from a logged-in user
    console.log(`Unauthorized request ${err}`);
}

Check Org Membership and Permission

Similar to checking org membership, but will also verify that the user has the specified permission in the organization.

Permissions are arbitrary strings associated with a role. For example, can_view_billing, ProductA::CanCreate, and ReadOnly are all valid permissions. You can create these permissions in the PropelAuth dashboard.

const authorizationHeader = // Get the Authorization header from an HTTP request
const orgId = // get the orgId from somewhere, such as the request URL
try {
    const user = await validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass(authorizationHeader)
    const org = user.getOrg(orgId)
    if (!org || !org.hasPermission("can_view_billing")) {
        // return a 403
    }
    console.log(`User ${user.userId} has 'can_view_billing' permissions for org ${org.orgName}`);
} catch (err) {
    // You can return a 401, or continue the request knowing it wasn't sent from a logged-in user
    console.log(`Unauthorized request ${err}`);
}

User Class

The User Class contains information about the user that made the request. It also contains methods such as getOrgs() and hasPermission().

const userClass = await validateAccessTokenAndGetUserClass(authorizationHeader)

OrgMemberInfo

The OrgMemberInfo object contains information about the user's membership in an organization.

Calling Backend APIs

You can also use the library to call the PropelAuth APIs directly, allowing you to fetch users, create orgs, and a lot more.

const auth = initAuth({
    authUrl: 'REPLACE_ME',
    apiKey: 'REPLACE_ME',
})

const magicLink = await auth.createMagicLink({
    email: 'user@customer.com',
})

See the API Reference for more information.