is-able

is-able

Keep the buisness logic of authentication seperate from its implementation details.

Define the implementation details of authentication in a User object, then assert rules using user.mustBeAbleTo, user.mustNotBeAbleTo, or implement custom handling using user.can and user.cannot.

import { User } from 'is-able';

const user = new User({
  rules: {
    create: id => id === 301,
    read: (id, age) => id !== 0 && age >= 14,
    update: (...names) => names && names.includes('The boss'),
    delete: ({ id, age }) => id !== 0 && age >= 14,
  }
});

...

console.log(user.can('create', 301)); // true
console.log(user.cannot('read', 301, 14)); // false

user.mustBeAbleTo('update', 'jimmy', 'The boss steven'); // no exception
user.mustNotBeAbleTo('delete', { id: 123, age: 7 }); // throws exception

is-able also supports the alternate forms user.mustBe, user.mustNotBe, user.is, and user.isNot.

import { User } from 'is-able';

const user = new User({
  rules: {
    'logged in': ({ id }) => id !== undefined && id > 0,
    admin: ({ id }) => id === 1000,
  }
});

...

user.mustBe('logged in', { id: userId });
user.mustBe('admin', { id: userId });

console.log('Authenticated as admin!');

// Alternatively...

if (user.isNot('logged in', { id: userId })) {
    // do something interesting here
    throw new Error();
}

if (user.isNot('admin', { id: userId })) {
    // do something else interesting here
    throw new Error();
}

console.log('Authenticated as admin!');

Wrap user in a function to pass in global or per-request variables, like user token or other auth credentials. Authentication and authorization errors are given a code of 401 so they can be easily identified by your server.

// auth.js
import { User } from 'is-able';

export function auth(token) => new User({
  rules: {
    'view protected resource A': () => token.id;
  }
});



// index.js

import { auth } from './auth';
import express from 'express';

const app = express();

// create user object
app.use((req, res, next) => {
    req.user = auth(req.headers.authorization);
    next();
});

app.get('/protected-resource', (req, res) => {
    req.user.mustBeAbleTo('view protected resource A');
    
    res.send('Super secret data!!');
});

// Handle auth errors
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
    if (err.code === 401) {
        res.status(401).send('Unauthorized');
        return;
    }
    next(err);
});

app.listen(8080);