persona-id

Easily use mozilla persona for authentication.

example

First we can make a simple core http server with some simple in-memory sessions. When the user is signed in, we'll update the #whoami element on the page to show their persona id.

var http = require('http');
var fs = require('fs');
var hyperstream = require('hyperstream');
var ecstatic = require('ecstatic')(__dirname + '/static');

var persona = require('persona-id')('http://localhost:5000');

var sessions = {};
persona.on('create', function (sid, id) {
    sessions[sid] = id.email;
});

persona.on('destroy', function (sid) {
    delete sessions[sid];
});

var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    if (persona.test(req)) {
        persona.handle(req, res);
    }
    else if (req.url === '/') {
        var sid = persona.getId(req);
        fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/static/index.html')
            .pipe(hyperstream({ '#whoami': sessions[sid] || '' }))
            .pipe(res)
        ;
    }
    else ecstatic(req, res)
});
server.listen(5000);

Now for the browser code:

var http = require('http');
var persona = require('persona-id')();

persona.on('login', function (id) {
    button.value = 'unidentify';
    whoami.textContent = id;
});

persona.on('logout', function () {
    button.value = 'identify';
    whoami.textContent = '';
});

var button = document.getElementById('identify');
var whoami = document.getElementById('whoami');

var who = whoami.textContent;
persona.set(who);

button.addEventListener('click', function () {
    if (!persona.id) {
        persona.identify();
    }
    else persona.unidentify();
});

Here we make an identify button and read the #whoami element that the server set to see if the server already knows who we are. You can use whatever mechanism you want to .set() the identity when the server knows it.

Then just compile the browser code with browserify:

$ browserify browser.js > static/bundle.js

and run the server:

$ node server.js

You now have a login button that persists across page loads!

It should be easy to extend the in-memory session to persist sessions to disk on your own.

methods

var persona = require('persona-id')

server methods

var p = persona(opts)

Create a new persona instance p from some options opts:

• opts.audience - the host:port of your server (mandatory)
• opts.prefix - the prefix to use for internal routes, default: '_persona'
• opts.verify - the verification endpoint to use, default: https://verifier.login.persona.org/verify
• opts.sessionName - the session cookie name to use, default: '_persona_session_id'.

If opts is a string, its value will be used as the opts.audience.

p.test(req)

Return whether p knows how to handle the req.method and req.url.

p.handle(req, res)

Handle the request, reading request data and sending responses for login and logout requests.

p.getId(req)

Return the session id for req.headers.cookie given the sessionName set by persona(opts).

server events

p.on('create', function (sid, id) {})

When a new session is created, this event fires with the session id string sid and the id object, which has these properties: id.email, id.audience, id.expires, id.issuer.

p.on('destroy', function (sid) {})

When a user logs out, this event fires with the session id.

browser methods

var p = persona()

Create a new persona instance p.

p.identify()

Sign in.

p.unidentify()

Sign out.

p.set(email)

Set the persona id email string for when the server already knows from session data that the user is authenticated.

browser events

p.on('login', function (id) {})

When the user is known to be authenticated, this event fires with the persona id string id.

p.on('logout', function () {})

When the user is known to be unauthenticated, this event fires.

Note that this event fires when p.set(undefined) is called too.

install

With npm do:

npm install persona-id

license

MIT