Unlocking Secure User Authentication with JSON Web Tokens and Bcrypt
When building an endpoint, whether it’s a GraphQL or REST API, restricting access to certain parts of your application based on user authentication is crucial. One efficient and scalable way to achieve this is by utilizing JSON Web Tokens (JWT) and Bcrypt. In this article, we’ll explore how to implement secure user authentication on an Apollo Server using Prisma as the ORM.
Setting Up the Foundation
To get started, we’ll create a new Apollo Server project using Prisma as the ORM. First, let’s set up the project directory with a package.json file. Next, we’ll create an index.js file to bootstrap the application.
Configuring Prisma and PostgreSQL
To use Prisma as the ORM, we’ll need to have Docker installed. We’ll configure PostgreSQL as the database of choice on the Docker host. After running the necessary commands, we’ll have the required files generated from the datamodel.prisma file.
Restructuring the Project
Now that we have Prisma set up, let’s restructure our project by creating schema.js and resolvers.js files in the project root. We’ll also update our index.js file to import the Prisma instance.
Installing Required Libraries
To proceed, we’ll need to install a few libraries, including bcrypt and jsonwebtoken. We’ll also add a script to our package.json file to enable us to start our server with ease.
Updating the Datamodel and Schema
Next, we’ll update our datamodel.prisma file to include user authentication fields. We’ll then update our schema.js file to include mutations for signing up and logging in users.
Implementing Mutation Functions
Now that we have our schema updated, let’s implement the mutation functions in our resolvers to sign up and log in users. We’ll also create a token to store the user’s identity.
Validating User Identity
To validate the user’s identity, we’ll modify the context function to pass the token from the client to the server. We’ll create an authenticate.js file to handle user authentication and update our resolvers to reflect these changes.
Decoding Tokens and Authorization
To make our decoded token more versatile, we’ll update it to handle authorization. We’ll also supply our login token via the HTTP HEADERS section in the GraphQL playground.
The Final Touches
We’ve successfully implemented user authentication using JWT on an Apollo Server. While this article provides a solid foundation, there are still many aspects to explore, such as access control and data protection.