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Twilio Sample Backend for Node.js

This repository contains a sample backend code that demonstrates how to combine Virgil and Twilio JWT generation, which are used for authentication with the Virgil and Twilio services.

Do not use this authentication in production. Requests to a /virgil-jwt and /twilio-jwt endpoints must be allowed for authenticated users. Use your application authorization strategy.

Prerequisites

NodeJS from 10 to 13

Set up and run demo

Clone

Clone the repository from GitHub.

$ git clone https://github.com/VirgilSecurity/twilio-sample-backend-nodejs.git

Get Virgil Credentials

If you don't have an account yet, sign up for one using your e-mail.

You can download a ready-to-use .env file

Navigate to the Virgil Dashboard -> Your Application -> E3Kit Section.
Generate .env in the .env file section.
Download the generated file, paste it into the project root folder and rename it to .env.

Or you can add the parameters manually:

To generate a Virgil JWT the following values are required:

Variable Name	Description
APP_ID	ID of your Virgil Application.
APP_KEY	Private key of your App that is used to sign the JWTs.
APP_KEY_ID	ID of your App Key. A unique string value that identifies your account in the Virgil Cloud.

Copy and rename .env.example to .env.
Create Application in the Virgil Dashboard, copy its APP_ID to the .env file;
Create App Key and save its private key value to APP_KEY line in the .env file;
Copy ID of the created key to APP_KEY_ID line in the .env file;

Get Twilio Credentials

To generate a Twilio JWT the following values are required:

Variable Name	Description
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID	Your primary Twilio account identifier - find this in the console here.
TWILIO_API_KEY_SID	SID of Twilio Api Key. Used for authentication on Twilio services. Generated with TWILIO_API_SECRET
TWILIO_API_SECRET	Twilio API key secret: generate one here
TWILIO_SERVICE_SID	A service instance where all the data for our application is stored and scoped. Generate one in the console here.

Add this parameters to your .env file.

Install Dependencies and Run the Server

$ npm install
$ npm run start

Now, use your client code to make a request to get a JWT from the sample backend that is working on http://localhost:3000.

Along with the backend we provide a demonstration of a simple client chat interacting with Virgil API, which you can see if you navigate to http://localhost:3000 at your browser. The sample chat code is located in the the public directory.

Specification

/authenticate endpoint

This endpoint is an example of users authentication. It takes user identity and responds with unique token.

POST https://localhost:3000/authenticate HTTP/1.1
Content-type: application/json;

{
    "identity": "string"
}

Response:

{
    "authToken": "string"
}

/virgil-jwt endpoint

This endpoint checks whether a request is authenticated by an authorization header. It takes user's authToken, finds related user identity and generates a virgilToken (which is JSON Web Token) with this identity in a payload. Use this token to make authorized API calls to Virgil Cloud.

GET https://localhost:3000/virgil-jwt HTTP/1.1
Content-type: application/json;
Authorization: Bearer <authToken>

Response:

{
    "virgilToken": "string"
}

/twilio-jwt endpoint

Same as Virgil token endpoint Twilio endpoint should be protected and responds with twilioToken.

GET https://localhost:3000/twilio-jwt HTTP/1.1
Content-type: application/json;
Authorization: Bearer <authToken>

Response:

{
    "twilioToken": "string"
}

Virgil JWT Generation

To generate a Virgil JWT, you need to use the JwtGenerator class from the Virgil SDK.

const virgilCrypto = new VirgilCrypto();

const generator = new JwtGenerator({
  appId: process.env.APP_ID,
  apiKeyId: process.env.API_KEY_ID,
  apiKey: virgilCrypto.importPrivateKey(process.env.API_PRIVATE_KEY),
  accessTokenSigner: new VirgilAccessTokenSigner(virgilCrypto)
});

Then you need to provide an HTTP endpoint which will return the JWT with the user's identity as a JSON.

For more details take a look at the virgilToken.js file.

License

This library is released under the 3-clause BSD License.

Support

Our developer support team is here to help you. Find out more information on our Help Center.

You can find us on Twitter or send us email support@VirgilSecurity.com.

Also, get extra help from our support team on Slack.