Custom providers

Serverpod's authentication module makes it easy to implement custom authentication providers. This allows you to leverage all the existing providers supplied by the module along with the specific providers your project requires.

Server setup

After successfully authenticating a user through a customer provider, an auth token can be created and connected to the user to preserve the authenticated user's permissions. This token is used to identify the user and facilitate endpoint authorization validation. The token can be removed when the user signs out to prevent further access.

Connect user

The authentication module provides methods to find or create users. This ensures that all authentication tokens from the same user are connected.

Users can be identified either by their email through the Users.findUserByEmail(...) method or by a unique identifier through the Users.findUserByIdentifier(...) method.

If no user is found, a new user can be created through the Users.createUser(...) method.

UserInfo? userInfo;
userInfo = await Users.findUserByEmail(session, email);
userInfo ??= await Users.findUserByIdentifier(session, userIdentifier);
if (userInfo == null) {
  userInfo = UserInfo(
    userIdentifier: userIdentifier,
    userName: name,
    email: email,
    blocked: false,
    created: DateTime.now().toUtc(),
    scopeNames: [],
  );
  userInfo = await Users.createUser(session, userInfo, _authMethod);
}

The example above tries to find a user by email and user identifier. If no user is found, a new user is created with the provided information.

note

For many authentication platforms the userIdentifier is the user's email, but it can also be another unique identifier such as a phone number or a social security number.

Custom identification methods

If other identification methods are required you can easily implement them by accessing the database directly. The UserInfo model can be interacted with in the same way as any other model with a database in Serverpod.

var userInfo = await UserInfo.db.findFirstRow(
  session,
  where: (t) => t.fullName.equals(name),
);

The example above shows how to find a user by name using the UserInfo model.

Create auth token

When a user has been found or created, an auth token that is connected to the user should be created.

To create an auth token, call the signInUser method in the UserAuthentication class, accessible as a static method, e.g. UserAuthentication.signInUser.

The signInUser method takes four arguments: the first is the session object, the second is the user ID, the third is information about the method of authentication, and the fourth is a set of scopes granted to the auth token.

var authToken = await UserAuthentication.signInUser(userInfo.id, 'myAuthMethod', scopes: {
    Scope('delete'),
    Scope('create'),
});

The example above creates an auth token for a user with the unique identifier taken from the userInfo. The auth token preserves that it was created using the method myAuthMethod and has the scopes delete and create.

info

The unique identifier for the user should uniquely identify the user regardless of authentication method. The information allows authentication tokens associated with the same user to be grouped.

Send auth token to client

Once the auth token is created, it should be sent to the client. We recommend doing this using an AuthenticationResponse. This ensures compatibility with the client-side authentication module.

class MyAuthenticationEndpoint extends Endpoint {
  Future<AuthenticationResponse> login(
    Session session,
    String username,
    String password,
  ) async {
    // Authenticates a user with email and password.
    if (!authenticateUser(session, username, password)) {
      return AuthenticationResponse(success: false);
    }

    // Finds or creates a user in the database using the User methods.
    var userInfo = findOrCreateUser(session, username);

    // Creates an authentication key for the user.
    var authToken = await UserAuthentication.signInUser(
      session,
      userInfo.id!,
      'myAuth',
      scopes: {},
    );

    // Returns the authentication response.
    return AuthenticationResponse(
      success: true,
      keyId: authToken.id,
      key: authToken.key,
      userInfo: userInfo,
    );
  }
}

The example above shows how to create an AuthenticationResponse with the auth token and user information.

Revoking authentication keys

Serverpod provides built-in methods for managing user authentication across multiple devices. These methods handle several critical security and state management processes automatically, ensuring consistent and secure authentication state across your servers. When using the authentication management methods (signOutUser or revokeAuthKey), the following key actions are automatically handled:

• Closing all affected method streaming connections to maintain connection integrity.
• Synchronizing authentication state across all connected servers.
• Updating the session's authentication state with session.updateAuthenticated(null) if the affected user is currently authenticated.

Revoking specific keys

To revoke specific authentication keys, use the revokeAuthKey method:

await UserAuthentication.revokeAuthKey(
  session,
  authKeyId: 'auth-key-id-here',
);

Fetching and revoking an authentication key using AuthenticationInfo

To revoke a specific authentication key for the current session, you can directly access the session's authentication information and call the revokeAuthKey method:

// Fetch the authentication information for the current session
var authId = (await session.authenticated)?.authId;

// Revoke the authentication key if the session is authenticated and has an authId
if (authId != null) {
  await UserAuthentication.revokeAuthKey(
    session,
    authKeyId: authId,
  );
}

Fetching and revoking a specific authentication key for a user

To revoke a specific authentication key associated with a user, you can retrieve all authentication keys for that user and select the key you wish to revoke:

// Fetch all authentication keys for the user
var authKeys = await AuthKey.db.find(
  session,
  where: (t) => t.userId.equals(userId),
);

// Revoke a specific key (for example, the last one)
if (authKeys.isNotEmpty) {
  var authKeyId = authKeys.last.id.toString();  // Convert the ID to string
  await UserAuthentication.revokeAuthKey(
    session,
    authKeyId: authKeyId,
  );
}

Removing specific tokens (direct deletion)

await AuthKey.db.deleteWhere(
  session,
  where: (t) => t.userId.equals(userId) & t.method.equals('username'),
);

warning

Directly removing authentication tokens from the AuthKey table bypasses necessary processes such as closing method streaming connections and synchronizing servers state. It is strongly recommended to use UserAuthentication.revokeAuthKey to ensure a complete and consistent sign-out.

Signing out all devices

The signOutUser method signs a user out from all devices:

await UserAuthentication.signOutUser(
  session,
  userId: 123,  // Optional: If omitted, the currently authenticated user will be signed out
);

This method deletes all authentication keys associated with the user.

Signing out a specific user

In this example, a specific userId is provided to sign out that user from all their devices:

// Sign out the user with ID 123 from all devices
await UserAuthentication.signOutUser(
  session,
  userId: 123,
);

Signing out the currently authenticated user

If no userId is provided, signOutUser will automatically sign out the user who is currently authenticated in the session:

// Sign out the currently authenticated user
await UserAuthentication.signOutUser(
  session,  // No userId provided, signs out the current user
);

Creating a logout endpoint

To sign out a user on all devices using an endpoint, the signOutUser method in the UserAuthentication class can be used:

class AuthenticatedEndpoint extends Endpoint {
  @override
  bool get requireLogin => true;

  Future<void> logout(Session session) async {
    await UserAuthentication.signOutUser(session);
  }
}

Client setup

The client must store and include the auth token in communication with the server. Luckily, the client-side authentication module handles this for you through the SessionManager.

The session manager is responsible for storing the auth token and user information. It is initialized on client startup and will restore any existing user session from local storage.

After a successful authentication where an authentication response is returned from the server, the user should be registered in the session manager through the sessionManager.registerSignedInUser(...) method. The session manager singleton is accessible by calling SessionManager.instance.

var serverResponse = await caller.myAuthentication.login(username, password);

if (serverResponse.success) {
    // Store the user info in the session manager.
    SessionManager sessionManager = await SessionManager.instance;
    await sessionManager.registerSignedInUser(
        serverResponse.userInfo!,
        serverResponse.keyId!,
        serverResponse.key!,
    );
}

The example above shows how to register a signed-in user in the session manager.