Creating a login page in Node.js is an essential step in building any web application that requires user authentication. In this article, I’ll guide you through the process of creating a login page using Node.js, and share some personal insights along the way.
Prerequisites
Before we get started, make sure you have Node.js installed on your system. You can download the latest version from the official Node.js website here. Additionally, a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will be helpful.
Setting up the Project
The first step is to create a new directory for your project and navigate to it in the terminal. Once you’re in the project directory, run the following command to initialize a new Node.js project:
npm init -y
This command will generate a package.json file which will keep track of your project dependencies and configurations.
Installing Dependencies
To create our login page, we’ll be using the Express.js framework. Run the following command to install Express and other required dependencies:
npm install express bcrypt body-parser
Express is a fast and minimalist web framework for Node.js, bcrypt is a library for hashing user passwords, and body-parser is a middleware used to parse incoming request bodies.
Building the Login Page
Now that we have our project set up and dependencies installed, let’s start building our login page. Create a new file called app.js in the project directory and add the following code:
const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
const app = express();
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.get('/login', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(__dirname + '/login.html');
});
app.post('/login', (req, res) => {
// Authenticate user and redirect to dashboard
});
app.listen(3000, () => {
console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});
The above code sets up a basic Express server and defines two routes – one for serving the login page and another for handling the login form submission. We’ll implement the authentication logic in the next section.
Authentication
Authentication is a crucial part of any login page. In the /login route, we’ll authenticate the user’s credentials and redirect them to the dashboard if successful. To keep things simple, we’ll store the user’s credentials in an array for now:
const users = [
{ username: 'john', password: '$2b$10$K1nPROdWq' },
{ username: 'jane', password: '$2b$10$Eyt7T8xe8' }
];
app.post('/login', (req, res) => {
const { username, password } = req.body;
const user = users.find(user => user.username === username);
if (user && bcrypt.compareSync(password, user.password)) {
res.redirect('/dashboard');
} else {
res.send('Invalid username or password');
}
});
In the above code, we compare the user’s entered password with the stored hashed password using the bcrypt library. If the credentials match, we redirect the user to the dashboard route; otherwise, we display an error message.
Conclusion
Creating a login page in Node.js involves setting up a server with Express, handling form submissions, and implementing user authentication logic. Although this article only scratches the surface of what you can do with user authentication, it provides a solid foundation to build upon.
Remember, security is of utmost importance when dealing with user authentication. It’s always a good idea to use industry-standard security practices, such as salting and hashing passwords, to protect your users’ data. Happy coding!