node.js - Sails.js + Passport.js authentication through websockets

Question

When I use Sails.js with Passport.js, the isAuthenticated method does not exist on the req object when requested through websocket.

Could anyone tell me why this happens?

Answer 1

Alternatively, you can hijack the 'router:request' event to plug in passport for socket requests. I do this in 'config/bootstrap.js':

module.exports.bootstrap = function (cb) {

  var passport = require('passport'),
    initialize = passport.initialize(),
    session = passport.session(),
    http = require('http'),
    methods = ['login', 'logIn', 'logout', 'logOut', 'isAuthenticated', 'isUnauthenticated'];

  sails.removeAllListeners('router:request');
  sails.on('router:request', function(req, res) {
    initialize(req, res, function () {
      session(req, res, function (err) {
        if (err) {
          return sails.config[500](500, req, res);
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < methods.length; i++) {
          req[methods[i]] = http.IncomingMessage.prototype[methods[i]].bind(req);
        }
        sails.router.route(req, res);
      });
    });
  });
  cb();
};

With this approach you don't need special handling for checking socket request authentication in policies. You do still need to hook up passport for non socket requests by way of express middleware.