Dataporten Gatekeeper Expressjs Middleware

Install Dataporten API Protector using npm:

npm install dataportenapi --save

Then include it in your ExpressJS server application:

var DataportenAPI = require('dataportenapi').DataportenAPI;

Register your API at Connect Dashboard:

• https://dashboard.dataporten.no

Point your API endpoint in Dashboard to your ExpressJS API.

And initialize Dataporten API Protector using the password that was generated for trust between Dataporten API Gatekeeper and your ExpressJS API:

var fc = new DataportenAPI({
    "password": "30d63d9b-3574-4832-be37-0c93121fca21"
});

DataportenAPI comes with several middlewares. First the optional cors() middleware, and then the important setup() middleware that establish trust and parses the incoming request headers.

A typical use is this:

app.use('/api', fc.cors(), fc.setup(), router);

Within a request handler, you may access some information:

var router = express.Router();
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.json({
        "message": 'hooray! welcome to our api!',
        "youMustBe": req.dataporten.userid,
        "accessingUsingThisClient": req.dataporten.clientid,
        "withTheseSubScopes": req.dataporten.scopes
    });
});

You may easily use the policy() middleware to apply some kind of authorization policy before the request is dealt with.

router.get('/write', fc.policy({requireScopes: ["write"], requireUserUnlessScopes: ["clientonly"]}), function(req, res) {
    res.json({
        message: 'This endpoint is slightly more protected',
        "youMustBe": req.dataporten.userid,
        "usingClient": req.dataporten.clientid
    });
});

The policy() middleware takes an object as input and the object properties can be one of:

• requireUser - does not accept requests that is not on behalf of an authenticated user
• requireUserUnlessScopes - does not accept requests that is not on behalf of an authenticated user, unless the request is authorized with a set of one or more specific scopes.
• requireScopes - does not accept requests without this subscope.

A simpler example:

router.get('/', fc.policy({requireUser: true}), function(req, res) {
    res.json({
        message: 'hooray! welcome to our api!',
        "youMustBe": req.dataporten.userid
    });
});