Logo
Frontend
Backend 

Express Reference

PropelAuth's Express library provides all the building blocks you need to add authentication to your Express projects.

Installation

npm install @propelauth/express

Initialize

initAuth performs a one-time initialization of the library. It will verify your apiKey is correct and fetch the metadata needed to verify access tokens in requireUser, optionalUser, and requireOrgMember.

In serverless environments, it's beneficial to skip the fetch, in which case you can pass in manualTokenVerificationMetadata instead of having the library fetch it.

import { initAuth } from '@propelauth/express';

const {
    requireUser,
    fetchUserMetadataByUserId,
    // ...
} = initAuth({
    authUrl: "REPLACE_ME",
    apiKey: "REPLACE_ME", 
});

Protect API Routes

The @propelauth/express library provides an Express middleware requireUser. This middleware will verify the access token and set req.user to the user's information if it's valid. Otherwise, the request is rejected with a 401 Unauthorized. You can also use optionalUser if you want the request to proceed in either case.

import { initAuth } from '@propelauth/express';

const { requireUser } = initAuth({ /* ... */ });

app.get("/api/whoami", requireUser, (req, res) => {
    res.text("Hello user with ID " + req.user.userId);
});

Verifying the access token doesn't require an external request.

Authorization / Organizations

You can also verify which organizations the user is in, and which roles and permissions they have in each organization. For that, we have middleware like:

  • requireOrgMember
  • requireOrgMemberWithMinimumRole
  • requireOrgMemberWithExactRole
  • requireOrgMemberWithPermission
  • requireOrgMemberWithAllPermissions
import { initAuth } from '@propelauth/express';

const { requireOrgMember } = initAuth({ /* ... */ });

// By default, requireOrgMember checks for orgId as a path parameter
// and it will set both req.user and req.org 
app.get("/org/:orgId/hello", requireOrgMember(), (req, res) => {
    res.text("You are in " + req.org.orgName);
});

User Object

The User object contains information about the user that made the request.

  • Name
    userId
    Type
    string
    Description

    The unique id of the user.

  • Name
    orgIdToOrgMemberInfo
    Type
    {[orgId: string]: OrgMemberInfo}
    Description

    A dictionary mapping from organization id to OrgMemberInfo object.

  • Name
    email
    Type
    string
    Description

    The email of the user.

  • Name
    firstName
    Type
    string
    Description

    The first name of the user.

  • Name
    lastName
    Type
    string
    Description

    The last name of the user.

  • Name
    username
    Type
    string
    Description

    The username of the user.

  • Name
    legacyUserId
    Type
    string
    Description

    If the user was migrated using our Migration API, this will be the id of the user in the legacy system.

  • Name
    impersonatorUserId
    Type
    string
    Description

    If the user is being impersonated, this is id of the user that impersonated them.

  • Name
    properties
    Type
    {[key: string]: unknown}
    Description

    A dictionary of custom properties associated with the user.

  • Name
    login_method
    Type
    object
    Description

    The method the user used to log in. Returns the Login Method Property.

  • Name
    active_org_id
    Type
    string | undefined
    Description

    Returns the ID of the Active Org, if the user has an Active Org set.

User Class

The User Class is similar to the User object but contains additional methods such as getOrgs() and hasPermission(). You must first retrieve the User object and then convert it to a User Class by doing the following:

const propelAuth = require("@propelauth/express");

app.get("/api/whoami", requireUser, (req, res) => {
    const userClass = propelAuth.UserClass.fromUser(req.user)
    res.json("Hello user with ID " + userClass.userId);
});
  • Name
    userId
    Type
    string
    Description

    The unique id of the user.

  • Name
    orgIdToOrgMemberInfo
    Type
    {[orgId: string]: OrgMemberInfo}
    Description

    A dictionary mapping from organization id to OrgMemberInfo object.

  • Name
    email
    Type
    string
    Description

    The email of the user.

  • Name
    firstName
    Type
    string
    Description

    The first name of the user.

  • Name
    lastName
    Type
    string
    Description

    The last name of the user.

  • Name
    username
    Type
    string
    Description

    The username of the user.

  • Name
    properties
    Type
    {[key: string]: unknown}
    Description

    A dictionary of custom properties associated with the user.

  • Name
    login_method
    Type
    object
    Description

    The method the user used to log in. Returns the Login Method Property.

  • Name
    active_org_id
    Type
    string | undefined
    Description

    Returns the ID of the Active Org, if the user has an Active Org set.

  • Name
    legacyUserId
    Type
    string
    Description

    If the user was migrated using our Migration API, this will be the id of the user in the legacy system.

  • Name
    impersonatorUserId
    Type
    string
    Description

    If the user is being impersonated, this is id of the user that impersonated them.

  • Name
    get_active_org()
    Type
    fn() -> OrgMemberInfo
    Description

    Returns the OrgMemberInfo of the Active Org.

  • Name
    getOrg()
    Type
    fn(orgId: string) -> OrgMemberInfo
    Description

    A method to retrieve OrgMemberInfo of the provided org. Returns undefined if user does not belong to org.

  • Name
    getOrgByName()
    Type
    fn(orgName: string) -> string
    Description

    A method to retrieve the OrgMemberInfo of an org by name. Returns undefined if user does not belong to the provided org.

  • Name
    getUserProperty()
    Type
    fn(key: string)
    Description

    A method to retrieve the value of the provided property for the user. Returns undefined if no value is set.

  • Name
    getOrgs()
    Type
    fn() -> OrgMemberInfo[]
    Description

    A method to retrieve an array of each org the user belongs to.

  • Name
    isImpersonating()
    Type
    fn() -> boolean
    Description

    A method to check if the user is being impersonated.

  • Name
    isRole()
    Type
    fn(orgId: string, role: string) -> boolean
    Description

    A method to check if the user is the provided role in the provided org.

  • Name
    isAtLeastRole()
    Type
    fn(orgId: string, role: string) -> boolean
    Description

    A method to check if the user is at least the provided role in the provided org.

  • Name
    hasPermission()
    Type
    fn(orgId: string, permission: string) -> boolean
    Description

    A method to check if the user has the provided permission in the provided org.

  • Name
    hasAllPermissions()
    Type
    fn(orgId: string, permission: string[]) -> boolean
    Description

    A method to check if the user has all the provided permissions in the provided org.

OrgMemberInfo

The OrgMemberInfo object contains information about the user's membership in an organization.

  • Name
    orgId
    Type
    string
    Description

    The unique id of the organization.

  • Name
    orgName
    Type
    string
    Description

    The name of the organization.

  • Name
    orgMetadata
    Type
    object
    Description

    The metadata associated with the organization.

  • Name
    urlSafeOrgName
    Type
    string
    Description

    The URL-safe name of the organization.

  • Name
    userAssignedRole
    Type
    string
    Description

    The role of the user in the organization.

  • Name
    userInheritedRolesPlusCurrentRole
    Type
    string[]
    Description

    The role of the user within this organization plus each inherited role.

  • Name
    userPermissions
    Type
    string[]
    Description

    A list of permissions the user has in the organization, based on their role.

  • Name
    isRole
    Type
    fn(role: string) -> boolean
    Description

    A function that returns true if the user has the specified role in the organization.

  • Name
    isAtLeastRole
    Type
    fn(role: string) -> boolean
    Description

    A function that returns true if the user has at least the specified role in the organization.

  • Name
    hasPermission
    Type
    fn(permission: string) -> boolean
    Description

    A function that returns true if the user has the specified permission in the organization.

  • Name
    hasAllPermissions
    Type
    fn(permissions: string[]) -> boolean
    Description

    A function that returns true if the user has all of the specified permissions in the organization.

  • Name
    orgRoleStructure
    Type
    string
    Description

    The role structure set for your project. See single and multi role per user for more information.

  • Name
    userAssignedAdditionalRoles
    Type
    string[]
    Description

    If using multiple roles per user, returns an array of roles that the user belongs to. Excludes the userAssignedRole.

Calling Backend APIs

You can also use the library to call the PropelAuth APIs directly, allowing you to fetch users, create orgs, and a lot more.

const magicLink = await auth.createMagicLink({
    email: "user@customer.com"
})

See the API Reference for more information.