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[!NOTE] Ember Simple Auth was written and is maintained by Mainmatter and contributors. We offer consulting, training, and team augmentation for Ember.js – check out our website to learn more!

Ember Simple Auth

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Ember Simple Auth is a lightweight library for implementing authentication/ authorization with Ember.js applications. It has minimal requirements with respect to application structure, routes etc. With its pluggable strategies it can support all kinds of authentication and authorization mechanisms.

Table of Contents

Basic Information

Usage

Core Feature Guides

Other Guides

Other Resources

What does it do?

How does it work?

Ember Simple Auth consists of 3 main building blocks - the session, a session store and authenticators.

The session service is the main interface to the library. It provides methods for authenticating and invalidating the session as well as for setting and reading session data.

The session store persists the session state so that it survives a page reload. It also synchronizes the session state across multiple tabs or windows of the application so that e.g. a logout in one tab or window also results in a logout in all other tabs or windows of the application.

Authenticators authenticate the session. An application can leverage multiple authenticators to support multiple ways of authentication such as sending credentials to the application's own backend server, Facebook, github etc.

Example App

Ember Simple Auth comes with a test app that implements a complete auth solution including authentication against the application's own server as well as Facebook, authorization of Ember Data requests and error handling. Check out that test app for reference. To start it, run

git clone https://github.com/mainmatter/ember-simple-auth.git
cd ember-simple-auth/packages/test-app
pnpm install && ember serve

and go to http://localhost:4200.

Installation

Installing the library is as easy as:

ember install ember-simple-auth

Upgrading from a pre-3.0 release?

The 3.0 release of ember-simple-auth removes previously deprecated code, introducing some breaking changes, but thankfully there is an v3 upgrade guide.

Upgrading to 4.0 release?

The 4.1 release introduced a session#setup that fixes build issues for typescript and embroider users, due to ESA using initializers. Consult with the guide in order to fix them as well as prepare yourself for v5 release which will make it required. v4 upgrade guide.

Walkthrough

Once the library is installed, the session service can be injected wherever needed in the application. In order to display login/logout buttons depending on the current session state, inject the service into the respective controller or component and query its isAuthenticated property in the template:

// app/controllers/application.js
import Controller from '@ember/controller';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default class ApplicationController extends Controller {
  @service session;

  …
}

{{!-- app/templates/application.hbs --}}
<div class="menu">
  …
  {{#if this.session.isAuthenticated}}
    <a {{on "click" this.invalidateSession}}>Logout</a>
  {{else}}
    {{#link-to 'login'}}Login{{/link-to}}
  {{/if}}
</div>
<div class="main">
  {{outlet}}
</div>

In the invalidateSession action call the session service's invalidate method to invalidate the session and log the user out:

// app/controllers/application.js
import Controller from '@ember/controller';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';
import { action } from "@ember/object";

export default class ApplicationController extends Controller {
  @service session;

  …

  @action
  invalidateSession() {
    this.session.invalidate();
  }
}

For authenticating the session, the session service provides the authenticate method that takes the name of the authenticator to use as well as other arguments depending on specific authenticator used. To define an authenticator, add a new file in app/authenticators and extend one of the authenticators the library comes with, e.g.:

// app/authenticators/oauth2.js
import OAuth2PasswordGrant from 'ember-simple-auth/authenticators/oauth2-password-grant';

export default class OAuth2Authenticator extends OAuth2PasswordGrant {}

With that authenticator and a login form like

{{!-- app/templates/login.hbs --}}
<form {{on "submit" this.authenticate}}>
  <label for="identification">Login</label>
  <input id='identification' placeholder="Enter Login" value={{this.identification}} {{on "change" this.updateIdentification}}>
  <label for="password">Password</label>
  <input id='password' placeholder="Enter Password" value={{this.password}} {{on "change" this.updatePassword}}>
  <button type="submit">Login</button>
  {{#if this.errorMessage}}
    <p>{{this.errorMessage}}</p>
  {{/if}}
</form>

the session can be authenticated with the session service's authenticate method:

// app/controllers/login.js
import Controller from '@ember/controller';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';
import { action } from "@ember/object";
import { tracked } from "@glimmer/tracking";

export default class LoginController extends Controller {
  @tracked errorMessage;
  @service session;

  @action
  async authenticate(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    let { identification, password } = this;
    try {
      await this.session.authenticate('authenticator:oauth2', identification, password);
    } catch(error) {
      this.errorMessage = error.error || error;
    }

    if (this.session.isAuthenticated) {
      // What to do with all this success?
    }
  }

  @action
  updateIdentification(e) {
    this.identification = e.target.value;
  }

  @action
  updatePassword(e) {
    this.password = e.target.value;
  }
}

To make a route in the application accessible only when the session is authenticated, call the session service's requireAuthentication method in the respective route's beforeModel method:

// app/routes/authenticated.js
import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default class AuthenticatedRoute extends Route {
  @service session;

  beforeModel(transition) {
    this.session.requireAuthentication(transition, 'login');
  }
}

This will make the route (and all of its subroutes) transition to the login route if the session is not authenticated. Add the login route in the router like this:

// app/router.js
Router.map(function() {
  this.route('login');
});

It is recommended to nest all of an application's routes that require the session to be authenticated under a common parent route:

// app/router.js
Router.map(function() {
  this.route('login');
  this.route('authenticated', { path: '' }, function() {
    // all routes that require the session to be authenticated
  });
});

To prevent a route from being accessed when the session is authenticated (which makes sense for login and registration routes for example), call the session service's prohibitAuthentication method in the respective route's beforeModel method:

// app/routes/login.js
import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default class LoginRoute extends Route {
  @service session;

  beforeModel(transition) {
    this.get('session').prohibitAuthentication('index');
  }
}

The session service also provides the handleAuthentication and handleInvalidation methods for handling authentication and invalidation of the session (which not only happens when the user submits the login form or clicks the logout button but also when the session is authenticated or invalidated in another tab or window of the application). The handleAuthentication method will transition to a configurable route while the handleInvalidation method will reload the page to clear all potentially sensitive data from memory. In order to customize those behaviours, these methods can be overridden when the application defines its own session service that extends the one provided by Ember Simple Auth.

To add authorization information to requests, you can use the session service to check if the session is authenticated and access authentication/authorization data, e.g. a token:

// app/adapters/application.js
import JSONAPIAdapter from '@ember-data/adapter/json-api';
import { computed } from '@ember/object';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default class ApplicationAdapter extends JSONAPIAdapter {
  @service session;

  @computed('session.{data.authenticated.access_token,isAuthenticated}')
  get headers() {
    let headers = {};
    if (this.session.isAuthenticated) {
      // OAuth 2
      headers['Authorization'] = `Bearer ${this.session.data.authenticated.access_token}`;
    }

    return headers;
  }
}

The Session Service

The session service is the main interface to the library. It defines the authenticate, invalidate and authorize methods as well as the session events as shown above.

It also provides the isAuthenticated as well as the data properties. The latter can be used to get and set the session data. While the special authenticated section in the session data contains the data that was acquired by the authenticator when it authenticated the session and is read-only, all other session data can be written and will also remain in the session after it is invalidated. It can be used to store all kinds of client side data that needs to be persisted and synchronized across tabs and windows, e.g.:

this.session.set('data.locale', 'de');

Authenticators

Authenticators implement the concrete steps necessary to authenticate the session. An application can leverage several authenticators for different kinds of authentication mechanisms (e.g. the application's own backend server, external authentication providers like Facebook etc.) while the session is only ever authenticated with one authenticator at a time. The authenticator to use is chosen when authentication is triggered via the name it is registered with in the Ember container:

this.session.authenticate('authenticator:some');

Ember Simple Auth comes with 4 authenticators:

To use any of these authenticators in an application, define a new authenticator in app/authenticators, extend if from the Ember Simple Auth authenticator

// app/authenticators/oauth2.js
import OAuth2PasswordGrantAuthenticator from 'ember-simple-auth/authenticators/oauth2-password-grant';

export default class OAuth2Authenticator extends OAuth2PasswordGrantAuthenticator {}

and invoke the session service's authenticate method with the respective name, specifying more arguments as needed by the authenticator:

this.session.authenticate('authenticator:some', data);

Customizing an Authenticator

Authenticators are easily customized by setting the respective properties, e.g.:

// app/authenticators/oauth2.js
import OAuth2PasswordGrantAuthenticator from 'ember-simple-auth/authenticators/oauth2-password-grant';

export default class OAuth2Authenticator extends OAuth2PasswordGrantAuthenticator {
  serverTokenEndpoint = '/custom/endpoint';
}

Implementing a custom Authenticator

Besides extending one of the predefined authenticators, an application can also implement fully custom authenticators. In order to do that, extend the abstract base authenticator that Ember Simple Auth comes with and override the authenticate, restore and (optionally) invalidate methods:

// app/authenticators/custom.js
import Base from 'ember-simple-auth/authenticators/base';

export default class CustomAuthenticator extends Base {
  restore(data) {
    …
  }

  authenticate(options) {
    …
  }

  invalidate(data) {
    …
  }
}

Session Stores

Ember Simple Auth persists the session state via a session store so it survives page reloads. There is only one store per application that can be defined in app/session-stores/application.js:

// app/session-stores/application.js
import Cookie from 'ember-simple-auth/session-stores/cookie';

export default class ApplicationSessionStore extends Cookie {}

If the application does not define a session store, the adaptive store which uses localStorage if that is available or a cookie if it is not, will be used by default. To customize the adaptive store, define a custom store in app/session-stores/application.js that extends it and overrides the properties to customize.

Store Types

Ember Simple Auth comes with 4 stores:

Adaptive Store

The adaptive store stores its data in the browser's localStorage if that is available or in a cookie if it is not; this is the default store.

localStorage Store

The localStorage store stores its data in the browser's localStorage. This is used by the adaptive store if localStorage is available.

Cookie Store

The Cookie store stores its data in a cookie. This is used by the adaptive store if localStorage is not available. This store must be used when the application uses FastBoot.

sessionStorage Store

The sessionStorage store stores its data in the browser's sessionStorage. See the Web Storage docs for details on sessionStorage and localStorage. caniuse has up-to-date information on browser support of sessionStorage and localStorage.

Ephemeral Store

The ephemeral store stores its data in memory and thus is not actually persistent. This store is mainly useful for testing. Also the ephemeral store cannot keep multiple tabs or windows in sync as tabs/windows cannot share memory.

Customizing the Store

The session store is easily customized by setting the respective properties, e.g.:

// app/session-stores/application.js
import AdaptiveStore from 'ember-simple-auth/session-stores/adaptive';

export default class ApplicationSessionStore extends AdaptiveStore {
  cookieName = 'my-apps-session-cookie';
}

Implementing a custom Store

Besides using one of the predefined session stores, an application can also implement fully custom stores. In order to do that, extend the abstract base session store that Ember Simple Auth comes with and implement the persist, restore and clear methods:

// app/session-stores/application.js
import Base from 'ember-simple-auth/session-stores/base';

export default class ApplicationSessionStore extends Base {
  persist() {
    …
  }

  restore() {
    …
  }
}

FastBoot

Ember Simple Auth works with FastBoot out of the box as long as the Cookie session store is being used. In order to enable the cookie store, define it as the application store:

// app/session-stores/application.js
import CookieStore from 'ember-simple-auth/session-stores/cookie';

export default class ApplicationSessionStore extends CookieStore {}

If you are using the OAuth2PasswordGrantAuthenticator, or DeviseAuthenticator, you must add node-fetch to your list of FastBoot whitelisted dependencies in package.json:

{
  "fastbootDependencies": [
    "node-fetch"
  ]
}

Engines

Ember Simple Auth works with engines out of the box. The host app and any engine(s) share the same session service so they can synchronize the authentication status:

// my-engine/addon/routes/index.js
import Application from '@ember/application';
import loadInitializers from 'ember-load-initializers';

class App extends Application {
  …

  engines = {
    'my-engine': {
      dependencies: {
        services: [
          'session'
        ]
      }
    }
  }
});

…

export default App;

The session can then be authenticated or invalidated from the host app or any of the engines and the state will be synchronized via the service.

One thing to be aware of is that if the authentication route is outside of the engine (e.g. in the host app), it is necessary to use the special transitionToExternal method in the engine to transition to it. That can be done by passing a callback instead of a route name to the session service's requireAuthentication method in that case:

// my-engine/addon/routes/index.js
import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default class IndexRoute extends Route {
  @service session;

  beforeModel(transition) {
    this.get('session').requireAuthentication(transition, () => this.transitionToExternal('login'));
  },
}

Testing

Ember Simple Auth comes with a set of test helpers that can be used in acceptance tests.

Our helpers use the more modern testing syntax and therefore require ember-cli-qunit 4.2.0 or greater or ember-qunit 3.2.0 or greater.

We provide the following helpers:

Which can be used as shown in the following example:

import { module, test } from 'qunit';
import { visit, currentURL } from '@ember/test-helpers';
import { setupApplicationTest } from 'ember-qunit';
import { currentSession, authenticateSession, invalidateSession } from 'ember-simple-auth/test-support';

module('Acceptance | app test', function(hooks) {
  setupApplicationTest(hooks);

  test('/login redirects to index if user is alread logged in', async function(assert) {
    await authenticateSession({
      authToken: '12345',
      otherData: 'some-data'
    });
    await visit('/login');

    assert.equal(currentURL(), '/');

    let sessionData = currentSession().get('data.authenticated');
    assert.equal(sessionData.authToken, '12345');
    assert.equal(sessionData.otherData, 'some-data');
  });

  test('/protected redirects to /login if user is not logged in', async function(assert) {
    await invalidateSession();

    await visit('/protected');

    assert.equal(currentURL(), '/login');
  });
});

If you're an ember-mocha user, we can recommend to check out this example from the test suite of ember-simple-auth itself.

Other guides

License

Ember Simple Auth is developed by and © Mainmatter GmbH and contributors. It is released under the MIT License.

Ember Simple Auth is not an official part of Ember.js and is not maintained by the Ember.js Core Team.