Session-based authentication in NestJS - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Session-based authentication with NestJS

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple web application that needs to remember users after they log in. To do this, you will use session-based authentication in NestJS. This means the server will keep track of who is logged in by storing information in a session.

🎯 Goal: Create a NestJS setup that uses session-based authentication. You will start by setting up the session data, then configure the session middleware, implement login logic to save user info in the session, and finally add a route that checks if a user is logged in by reading the session.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a session object to hold user data

Configure session middleware with a secret key

Implement a login route that saves user info in the session

Add a protected route that checks session data to confirm login

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Session-based authentication is used in many web apps to remember users after they log in, so they don't have to enter their credentials every time.

💼 Career

Understanding session management is important for backend developers working with web frameworks like NestJS to build secure and user-friendly applications.

1

Set up the session data structure

Create a variable called session as an empty object to hold user session data.

NestJS

# Your code here
# Create a variable called session as an empty object

Need a hint?

Think of session as a box where you will store user info after login.

2

Configure session middleware

Add a constant called sessionConfig with a property secret set to the string 'mySecretKey' to configure session middleware.

NestJS

const session = {};
// Add sessionConfig with secret 'mySecretKey' below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The secret key helps keep session data safe.

3

Implement login logic to save user info in session

Write a function called loginUser that takes a parameter username and saves it in the session object under the key user.

NestJS

const session = {};
const sessionConfig = { secret: 'mySecretKey' };

// Write loginUser function below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This function saves the username in the session so the server remembers who is logged in.

4

Add a route to check if user is logged in

Create a function called isLoggedIn that returns true if session.user exists, otherwise returns false.

NestJS

const session = {};
const sessionConfig = { secret: 'mySecretKey' };

function loginUser(username) {
    session.user = username;
}

// Write isLoggedIn function below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This function checks if the user is saved in the session to confirm login status.