HTTP Authentication
- HTTP Authentication is a fundamental method for securing APIs. It involves sending credentials with each HTTP request.
- There are several mechanisms for HTTP Authentication, such as Basic Authentication and Bearer Authentication.
Example of HTTP Authentication
Let’s consider implementing Basic Authentication in a GraphQL API using Node.js. We can use middleware to parse the Authorization header and validate the credentials against a database or any other authentication source.
// Required packages
const express = require('express');
const basicAuth = require('express-basic-auth');
const { GraphQLServer } = require('graphql-yoga');
// GraphQL schema definition
const typeDefs = `
type Query {
hello: String!
}
`;
// Resolver functions
const resolvers = {
Query: {
hello: () => 'Hello World!',
},
};
// Express app setup
const app = express();
// Basic authentication middleware
app.use(
basicAuth({
users: { 'username': 'password' }, // Replace with your user credentials
unauthorizedResponse: { message: 'Unauthorized' },
})
);
// GraphQL server setup
const server = new GraphQLServer({ typeDefs, resolvers, context: ({ req }) => ({ req }) });
// Start the server
server.start(() => console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:4000'));
Explanation
In the above code we have sets up an Express server with basic authentication using the express-basic-auth
middleware. It also creates a GraphQL server using graphql
-
yoga
, defining a simple schema with a single hello
query that returns “Hello World!”. The server is started on port 4000. The context
function in the GraphQL server setup ensures that the req
object is available in resolver functions, which can be useful for authentication or other middleware functionalities.
Authentication in GraphQL
Authentication is a critical aspect of securing any API, including GraphQL. In this article, we’ll learn about the various authentication methods commonly used in GraphQL APIs, including HTTP Authentication, Custom Authentication, and JSON Web Tokens (JWT) Authentication. For each method, we will learn implementation with examples.
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