Like any kind of apps, there are difficult issues to solve when we write Node apps.

In this article, we’ll look at some solutions to common problems when writing Node apps.

Use the Middleware to Check the Authorization Before Entering Each Route in Express

We can add a middleware to a route to check for the proper credentials before entering a route.

For instance, we can write:

const protectedMiddlewares = [authChecker, fetchUser];
const unprotectedMiddlewares = [trackVisistorCount];

app.get("/", unprotectedMiddlewares, (req, res) => {
  //...
})
app.get("/dashboard", protectedMiddlewares, (req, res) => {
  // ...
})
app.get("/auth", unprotectedMiddlewares, (req, res) => {
  //...
})
app.put("/auth", unprotectedMiddlewares, (req, res) => {
  //...
})

We have an array of middleware for the protected dashboard route.

And we have an array of middleware for the unprotected routes.

A middleware may look like the following:

const authChecker = (req, res, next) => {
  if (req.session.auth || req.path === '/auth') {
    next();
  } else {
    res.redirect("/auth");
  }
}

We have the authChecker middleware that checks the path of the route and the session.

If there’s a session set, then we call the next middleware which should lead to a protected route handler in the end.

Otherwise, we redirect to the auth route.

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