tanviredusecond / okta-express-blog

A simple Node.js/Express.js CRUD app (a blog).

okta-express-blog

A simple Node.js/Express.js CRUD app (a blog).

Purpose

This is a simple blogging app built with Node.js and Express.js. It uses Okta for handling user authentication. Why am I using Okta? Because it makes the authentication component really simple, and that's what I'm all about: simple stuff.

Prerequisites

If you don't already have an Okta account, please go create one: https://developer.okta.com/signup/.

Okta accounts are free and last forever, you can use them to store the users for all of your applications, it's pretty nifty.

Now go clone this GitHub repository locally and change into the directory:

git clone https://github.com/rdegges/okta-express-blog.git
cd okta-express-blog

Next, you'll need to go create an Okta application. You can do this by logging into the Okta dashboard, clicking the Applications tab, clicking Add Application, clicking Web and Next, then entering the following application settings:

• Name: blog or whatever you want to name your project
• Base URIs: http://localhost:3000
• Login redirect URIs: http://localhost:3000/users/callback

Leave all the other settings as their default values, then click Done. On the following page, copy down the values for both Client ID and Client secret, you will need these in a moment.

Next, click the Dashboard tab at the top of the page, then copy the Org URL value from the top-right of the page.

Then click the API tab at the top of the page as well as the Create Token button. Enter a name for your token (just give it the same name as your project) then click Create Token. Copy the token value down as you will need it in a moment.

Finally, create a file that holds environment variables. This application relies on environment variables to specify credentials so that you don't need to hard-code secrets into your application.

Create a file named .envrc and enter the following contents (NOTE: this will only work if you are using *nix or Mac -- if you're using Windows you'll need to figure out what to do as I'm not a Windows guy, sorry!):

export OKTA_ORG_URL={{ your org URL }}
export OKTA_TOKEN={{ your okta token }}
export OKTA_CLIENT_ID={{ your client ID }}
export OKTA_CLIENT_SECRET={{ your client secret }}
export SECRET={{ a long random string you create by mashing the keybaord for a second }}

These settings will be used to kickstart your blog application.

To "activate" these settings, you need to tell your terminal to "apply" these variables so they can be used. To do this run the following command:

. .envrc

You can test to amke sure your environemnt variables are working by running the following command. If successful, you should see the value you previously entered into the .envrc file.:

echo $OKTA_ORG_URL

Now you've got your app fully configured and the only thing you need to do is install all of the project's dependencies. To do this, you must have Node.js installed. If you don't, go view this page to learn how.

Once Node.js is isntalled (please install the latest release!), run the following command to install all dependencies:

npm install

Start the App

Now that everything is ready, you can start up the app. To do this, run the following command -- this will start the webserver on port 3000:

npm start

Now open your browser and go visit http://localhost:3000 to view the website. If you click the Log In button at the top of the page, you will be able to log into the blog using your Okta account you created earlier.

Once you're logged in, you'll be able to create new posts, edit posts, delete posts, etc.

Contribute

Want to contribute to this project and make it better? Feel free to send me a pull request. I'll do my best to get back quickly.