Elf Authentication

Elf Authentication is a set of classes, methods and decorators to aid with authentication when using TypeORM and Express.

Classes

It exports a base ElfUser model class, which can be extended in the target project to include more properties related to the user, and a base ElfRole class, for adding user roles.

ElfUser

The ElfUserclass contains the following properties:

• id
• username
• email
• emailVerified
• emailVerificationToken
• passwordResetToken
• passwordHash
• isDisabled

ElfRole

The ElfRole class contains the following properties:

• id
• name
• permissions

Decorators

Elf Authentication provides the following decorators for use in controllers.

@AuthorizeRoutes()

Decorate a controller class with this to apply authorization to all methods within that controller.

@Authorize()

Decorate a class method with this to apply authorization to just that method.

@AllowAnonymous()

Use this decorator to exempt a method from inherited authorization, such as one initiated with the AuthorizeRoutes decorator.

The AuthorizeRoutes and Authorize decorators accept options as an optional parameter. Set the checkPermissions flag to true to also authorize user permissions.

Methods

Elf Authentication makes available the following helper methods.

InitializeAuthentication

Use this to initialize authentication. Provide as first parameter, a reference to the TypeORM User Repository e.g. InitializeAuthentication(getRepository(User)). This is typically done before once a DB Connection has been made.

AuthenticateUser

Use this asynchronous method to authenticate a user. It's typically used at login, and accepts the express request and response objects. It returns a TokenResponse which contains token, expiresIn and tokenType e.g. const token = await AuthenticateUser(req, resp)

CreateUserSession

Use this asynchronous method to create a user session from a user. It's typically used after creating a user and accepts the request object and a user object. It also returns a TokenResponse. e.g. const token = await CreateUserSession(req, createdUser)

Customising

The following environment variables are available to use to customise the authorization process: | Tables | Are | | ------------- |-------------| | ELF_AUTH_CIPHER_KEY | Use this to define an encryption key for authorization. | | ELF_AUTH_EXPIRES_IN | Use this to customise how long the generated access token is valid for. The default value is 7 days. |