Introduction.
Hello there and welcome back. Thanks for reading to this point in the series. In case you missed where it all started, check here.
In this article, I will be discussing some features I didn't add to the project the first time I built it. So join me on this one.
User Input Validation.
This implementation is to sure that the data received from the user is in the proper format. I used a validation package called JOI. With JOI, the developer can describe how the data schema should look and the validation rules. You can install JOI with this command: npm install joi
/validators/user.Validator.js
const Joi = require("joi");
const validateUserMiddelWare = async (req, res, next) => {
const userPayload = req.body;
try {
await userValidator.validateAsync(userPayload);
next();
} catch (error) {
return res.status(406).send(error.details[0].message);
}
};
const userValidator = Joi.object({
email: Joi.string()
.email({
minDomainSegments: 2,
tlds: { allow: ["com", "net"] },
})
.required(),
password: Joi.string().pattern(new RegExp("^[a-zA-Z0-9]{3,30}$")),
first_name: Joi.string().required(),
last_name: Joi.string().required(),
});
module.exports = validateUserMiddelWare;
First, we require joi and define a middleware that will validate the user input. Next is to define the schema and set constraints.
/routes/authRoute.js
const userValidation = require("../validators/user.Validator");
userRouter.post(
"/signup",
userValidation,
passport.authenticate("signup", { session: false }),
authController.signUp
);
We added this route to our code earlier before. The only difference now is the userValidation middleware.
Rate Limiting.
Rate limiting is a feature that is being used to protect APIs from malicious attacks and to handle too many requests to APIs.
/app.js
const rateLimit = require("express-rate-limit");
const limiter = rateLimit({
windowMs: 20 * 60 * 1000, // 20 minutes
max: 50,
standardHeaders: true,
legacyHeaders: false,
});
app.use(limiter);
First, install the express-rate-limit package from npm. Then configure the rateLimit object. This way it applies to all objects.
Security.
Security is very important in backend applications, especially when moving the application to a production environment. Here we will use helmet package. Install it and use it as middleware. It helps protect the application from web vulnerabilities.
/app.js
const helmet = require("helmet");
app.use(helmet);
Conclusion.
In this article, we discussed how to validate user input, limit the requests to our application and secure our application from web vulnerabilities. I hope you enjoyed this one.
Thanks for reading to the end.