Check out this guide and learn how to implement authentication in Nest.js. Alternatively, you can check the complete code on this GitHub repository that contains the authentication, products, and orders modules. Authorization strategies like RBAC and claims-based authorization are vital tools in the developer’s arsenal.

Well in my own words, Nest.js is a Node.js framework built on top of express.js and TypeScript that comes with a strong opinion on how API’s should be built. Since it is very opinionated it provides a structure, a CLI, and an almost infinite amount of tools that let you create professional APIs very very fast. Nest.js is a popular and in-demand backend framework in the Node.js ecosystem.

A blueprint for a NestJS REST API project

This course teaches developers how to create backend APIs using Nest, TypeScript, and TypeORM. This complete guide has everything you need from setting up your NestJS app coding, testing, and deployment. You will also get a behind-the-scenes understanding of the NestJS web framework. Providers are injected as dependencies and create relationships between various objects.

This seems like is gonna generate a lot of code, is there an easy way to manage dependencies? I have heard a lot of great things from this backend framework called Nest.js but I hadn’t tried it myself. Now after a week of coding the API, having several endpoints, authenticating, connecting to a database, and stuff I will give you my honest review. In this post, you are not going to be provided with any example commands for package installation and/or creating the project, or the project modules. However, your prize will be a repository with an example code as the result of the steps given below.

User Repository provider

We could stop the article now, and you would have enough best practices that would help you navigate around the complexities of implementing your authentication system. However, I’d be doing you a great disservice if I did not share some practical tips and tricks that I’ve seen in the field. The session ID should have a limited lifespan and should expire after a certain period of inactivity or absolute time. This reduces the window of opportunity for an attacker to use a stolen session ID​5​.

To create a controller in a Nest app, we have to make use of the @Controller() decorator. Every Nest application has a root module that serves as an entry point to resolve a Nest application’s structure and relationships. This is because we have not yet defined a route for the base URL of the Nest app. Also in the src directory is the app.controller.spec.ts file, which is a test file for Controllers. The AppController is also a class that is created using the @Controller decorator, while the AppService is a class that is created using the @Injectable annotation.

Approach #2: Claims-based authorization

Controllers in NestJS serve as a bridge between client requests and responses. The routing mechanism will always direct the request to an appropriate controller whenever an HTTP request is made. Each class method is then mapped to routes to receive a specific request. Session-based authentication, on the other hand, involves creating a session for the user after they have been authenticated. The server stores the session data and sends a session ID to the client. The client then sends this session ID in subsequent requests, allowing the server to authenticate the user based on this session data.

• Adidas, a shoe manufacturer, and designer, is among the companies using NestJS.
• Developers must install the official documentation, and official CLI from NPM packages to start.
• The User table will have name email password and gender as columns.
• However, this does not scale well and can lead to issues if the server restarts.
• Such providers can also be injected into a class through the constructor, and NestJS will resolve the dependencies.
• When a user logs out or in any other event requiring token invalidation, the token is added to a blacklist.

The POST api/v1/auth/signup endpoint will call the this.authService.create(user) method, create the user, and return a JWT token. We call the validateUser() method in the AuthService (we are yet to write this method), which checks if the user exists and if the password is correct. AuthService.validateUser() returns null if not valid or the user object if valid. Let’s add a User module to handle all user-related operations and to keep tabs on who is creating what post. Nest provides a @nestjs/config package out-of-the-box to help load our .env file.

.env file

The @Module() decorator provides metadata that Nest uses to organise the application structure. For instance, when you make an API call to /posts the controller will handle this request and return the appropriate response you specified. The class-validator package makes it possible to validate decorators and non-decorators, using validator.js internally. While the class-transformer package makes it possible to transform objects into instances of a class, transform class into object, and serialize or deserialize objects based on certain criteria. Nest supports dependency injection and you can use it in your Nest applications to enhance the modularity of your project.

You will be able to use
this knowledge on your own projects, even those that don’t use nest . An interceptor is a specialised set of middleware that lets you peek into the request that goes into the application. You can peek into the request either before it reaches the controller or after the controller is done with the request before it gets to the client-side as a response.

As developers continue to construct increasingly intricate applications in Nest.js, they face the challenge of authorizing users for specific actions, roles, or resources. Authorization, a process that determines what a user can and cannot do after they’ve been authenticated, is a critical aspect of web security. Multiple strategies exist for handling authorization, each with its strengths and weaknesses.

On the other hand, developers who work on front-end frameworks create feature-rich, visually appealing applications and websites. Nest.JS offers a good structure and CLI tools for beginners to get started. With the help of a single command, developers can scaffold a whole new feature. Nest.JS provides the module, https://wizardsdev.com/en/vacancy/middle-senior-nestjs-developer/ controller, service and a testing pile to get started. Also, multiple templates and boilerplates are available for different projects. As the Nest framework is entirely in TypeScript, developers with no experience in backend development but experience in front-end development can easily use Nest.JS.