SocketCluster Middleware HandShake with promise

Question

Im building an app that serve both http and ws. Users login first over HTTP to a Laravel Server. That returns a JWT that is used to allow login over WS.

Ihv added a MIDDLEWARE_HANDSHAKE that gets the token and make a request to Laravel Server to ask if that token is valid and the user has access to WS (Not every logged user is allowed to WS);

Client code:

var options = {
    host: '127.0.0.1:3000',
    query: {
        source: 'web',
        token: '',
    }
};

var socket;

$.post('http://127.0.0.1:8000/authenticate', {
    email: 'chadd01@example.org',
    password: '1234'
}, function(data, textStatus, xhr) {
    options.query.token = data.token;

    //ALL PERFECT UNTILL HERE

    // Initiate the connection to the ws server
    socket = socketCluster.connect(options)
        .on('connect', function(data) {
            console.log('CONNECTED', data);
        })
        .on('error', function(data) {
            console.log('ERROR', data.message);
        });
});

SocketCluster Server code:

scServer.addMiddleware(scServer.MIDDLEWARE_HANDSHAKE, function(request, next) {
    var query = url.parse(request.url, true).query;
    switch (query.source) {
        case 'web':
        case 'mobile-app':
            validateUser(query)
                .then((response) => {
                    next(); //Allowed
                })
                .catch((code) => {
                    next(code); //Blocked with StatusCode
                });
            break;

        default:
            next(true, 'NOT_AUTHORIZED'); // Block
            break;
    }
});

validateUser = (credentials = {}) => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        request({ url: API + 'webSocket/users/' + credentials.token, method: 'GET' }, (error, response, body) => {
            if (response.statusCode === 200) {
                resolve(body);
            }
            reject(response.statusCode);
        });
    });

};

While implementing this middleware like this i keep getting this response from ws server even when validation is successfull:

WebSocket connection to 'ws://127.0.0.1:3000/socketcluster/?source=web&token=<_TOKEN_>' failed: Connection closed before receiving a handshake response

(index):149 ERROR Socket hung up

But, if i implement the HANDSHAKE_MIDDLEWARE like this:

scServer.addMiddleware(scServer.MIDDLEWARE_HANDSHAKE, function(request, next) {
    var validUser = true;
    if (validUser){
         return next();
    }
    return next('NOT_A_VALID_USER');
});

All goes fine:

CONNECTED Object {id: "W067vqBc9Ii8MuIqAAAC", pingTimeout: 20000, isAuthenticated: true, authToken: "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ0b2tlbiI6I…xOTV9.E4bLPh4Vjk9ULvfhW6prjBbVt0vOD32k63L1vlDtGrU"}

So the problem seems to be in the Promise callback.

Any advice if this is not the right way to implement?

Thanks.

Answer 1

A big reason why JWT is used on SocketCluster is to handle logging in and authentication, have you considered just using WS?

Take a look at SocketCluster authentication.

---

Just how your current HTTP code check the login data, you can do the same for WS and use socket.setAuthToken to set the token (here is an example that I used in my project):

socket.setAuthToken({
    email: credentials.email,
    id: returnedData.id,
    permission: returnedData.permission
});

You can then do requests to the WS server still using on/emit, and do a check to see if they are authenticated. Here's a modified snippet of my authCheck function:

const token = socket.getAuthToken();

if (token && token.email) {
    console.log('Token Valid, User is: ', token.email);
    // user validated - continue with your code
} else {
    console.log('Token Invalid, User not authenticated.');
    // respond with error message to the user
}