Question

I’m currently building a web app using Node.js and Express.js.

I’m looking for a way to have a simple server-side authentication with a username and password in my main app.js file which is listening for a post request at http://www.domain.com/login:

app.js

app.post('/login', function(req, res) {
  // some server-side code for a username and password
}

On the client-side I have a simple login form with a username and password. This form is going to posted to the server:

index.html

<form method="post" action="/login">
<input type="text" id="user" name="user" />
<input type="password" id="pass" name="pass" />
<button type="submit">Login</button>
</form>

I am looking to achieve this without the use of any ExpressJS plugins.

Edit: So my question is, how do I achieve a simple username and password authentication in ExpressJS and NodeJS?

Answer 1

I found the answer I was looking for using the Connect middleware included with ExpressJS, without the need to use cookies or add in another Node module:

var express = require('express');

function authorize(username, password) {
    return 'someone' === username & 'password' === password;
}

var app = express.createServer(
    express.basicAuth(authorize)
);

app.get('/', function(request, response) {
    response.send('Authorized!');
});

console.log('Starting server...')
app.listen(8080);

After running the application and navigating to http://localhost:8080, it prompts for a username and password. Simples.