Authentication Demo featuring The Society for the Appreciation of Capybaras

A locally hosted backend system focused around authentication. Login, signup and logging user's most recent login are supported. Sessions, a reset password flow, and logout are in the process of being built.

Database: MySQL, with tables for users and sessions. Backend and Middleware: Node.js, Express.js, Sequelize, Validator.js, bcrypt, morgan and more! Frontend: EJS and CSS

Notes on development

This app uses the model-view-controller architecture.

As this was my first project with MySQL and Sequelize, I faced some uncertainty with how to set up sessions. Currently sessions are initialized but they are not persistent, nor are they tied to the user upon logging in.

How to install and run

You need Node and MySQL on your computer. Download the zip file or fork the repository and make a local copy. Open the root directory in terminal of your editor and use the CLI to run:

npm init

npm install

In the root directory, create a file named ".env" with the following fields:

PORT = port number

DB_NAME = 'name of your database'

DB_PW = 'your database user password'

DB_USER = 'your database user name'

SESSION_SECRET = 'your session secret'

Make sure your database server is live. Navigate to the root/models/User.js file and run it with the following CLI command: node user.js

You should get a console message telling you the database synced successfully.

Once you've assured that your database is connected, you can fire up the server with the following command:

npm start

Open your browser and head to "localhost:PORT". You can now signup, login, etc. Have fun and find the capybara photo.

Understanding the Directory

Below is an overview of the directory and files, and what they do. Additionally, inside the top of each file, it's purpose is stated along with any other significant features.

├───config
|   └───database.js                 # configures the database connection
├───controllers
|   ├───authPost.js                 # responds to all POST requests that require Authentication
│   └───get.js                      # responds to all GET requests for page redirection
├───models
│   └───User.js                     # configures the User model with Sequelize, including password validation and login logging methods
├───public                          # all assets such as images and stylesheets
│   ├───images
│   └───styles.css
├───routes                          # routes all requests to appropriate controller
│   └───home.js
├───tests
│   ├───databaseTests.js            # tests database connection and syncing
│   └───testValidPassword.js        # tests validPassword from User.js model
├───views                           # all .ejs files for rendering views in browser
├───server.js                       # tell node / express what to use and how to use
└───package.json                    # all node packages

Future Optimizations

⚠️ = If the SFTAC was real, which it should be, these would be important to fix.

• Increased validation/sanitization on all forms ⚠️
• Update hashing algorithm to Argon2
• Write functions to simplify database operations
• Write actual tests with Jest
• In-browser password reset flow with tokens
• Configure sessions (this is started) ⚠️
• Google ReCaptchav3 on forms ⚠️
• The UI is ugly ⚠️
• Move session configuration into its own file

A note on the tests

They are a bit hacky! These are just bits I wrote while building this to see outputs and/or check something was working.