Protecting a Single Page Application (SPA) - Advanced Integration

try {
  let ch_storage = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("crowdhandler"))
  return ch_storage.token["my.domain.com]
} catch (error) {
  return ""
}

2.) Install Server-Side code

The purpose of the server-side code is to sit in front of your API and validate requests against CrowdHandler for promotion state. API calls that do not present a promoted CrowdHandler session should be stopped in their tracks.

The sourceURL value that you provided in your API payloads is used as the temporary URL when checking in with CrowdHandler. In the control panel, you will have configured CrowdHandler to protect your website URLs, not your API URLs. This temporary rewrite using the sourceURL value informs CrowdHandler of the page that the API call originated from.

The CrowdHandler token is extracted from the chToken value that you provided in your API payloads.

See code comments for more implementation details.

Example - Express Framework

const express = require("express");
const router = express.Router();
const crowdhandler = require("crowdhandler-sdk");
const { URL } = require("url");

// Middleware to handle CrowdHandler logic for POST and PUT methods
const crowdHandlerMiddleware = async (req, res, next) => {
  const method = req.method;

  // Check if the request method is POST or PUT
  if (method === "POST" || method === "PUT") {
    const publicKey = "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY";
    const public_client = new crowdhandler.PublicClient(publicKey);
    const ch_context = new crowdhandler.RequestContext(req, res);
    const ch_gatekeeper = new crowdhandler.Gatekeeper(
      public_client,
      ch_context,
      publicKey
    );

    let decodedBody;
    let chToken;
    let sourceURL;

    if (req.body) {
      try {
        decodedBody = JSON.parse(req.body);
        chToken = decodedBody.chToken;
        sourceURL = decodedBody.sourceURL;

        // Extract host & path from sourceURL
        let url = new URL(sourceURL);
        let temporaryHost = url.host;
        let temporaryPath = url.pathname;

        // Override the gatekeeper host and path with the sourceURL
        ch_gatekeeper.overrideHost(temporaryHost);
        ch_gatekeeper.overridePath(temporaryPath);

        // If there's a token in the body, provide gatekeeper with a pseudo cookie
        if (chToken) {
          ch_gatekeeper.overrideCookie(`crowdhandler=${chToken}`);
        }
      } catch (error) {
        console.error("Error parsing JSON:", error);
        return next(error);
      }
    }

    const ch_status = await ch_gatekeeper.validateRequest();

    // If the request is not promoted, send a 403 Forbidden response and do not proceed to the next middleware
    if (!ch_status.promoted) {
      res.status(403).send("Forbidden");
      return;
    } else {
      // If the request is promoted, save the ch_gatekeeper instance in res.locals for later use
      res.locals.ch_gatekeeper = ch_gatekeeper;
    }
  }
  // Continue to the next middleware or route handler
  next();
};

// Add the CrowdHandler middleware to the router
router.use(crowdHandlerMiddleware);

// Route handler for all request methods and paths
router.all("*", (req, res, next) => {
  // Render the view and send the HTML
  res.render("index", { title: "hello" }, (err, html) => {
    // Handle any errors during rendering
    if (err) {
      return next(err);
    }

    // Send the rendered HTML to the client
    res.send(html);

    // If the ch_gatekeeper instance exists in res.locals, record the performance
    if (res.locals.ch_gatekeeper) {
      res.locals.ch_gatekeeper.recordPerformance();
    }
  });
});

// Export the router
module.exports = router;

Example - Lambda@Edge

Viewer Request

"use strict";
//include crowdhandler-sdk
const crowdhandler = require("crowdhandler-sdk");
const publicKey = "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY_HERE";

let ch_client = new crowdhandler.PublicClient(publicKey, { timeout: 2000 });

module.exports.viewerRequest = async (event) => {
  //extract the request from the event
  let request = event.Records[0].cf.request;
  let decodedBody;
  let chToken;
  let sourceURL;

  //if the request is not a POST or PUT request, return the request unmodified
  if (request.method !== "POST" || request.method !== "PUT" ) {
    return request;
  }

  if (request.body && request.body.encoding === "base64") {
    // Decode the base64 encoded body
    decodedBody = Buffer.from(request.body.data, "base64").toString("utf8");

    // Parse the JSON encoded body
    try {
      // Parse the decoded body into a JSON object
      decodedBody = JSON.parse(decodedBody);
      //destructure sourceURL, chToken from the decoded body
      chToken = decodedBody.chToken;
      sourceURL = decodedBody.sourceURL;

      // Now you can work with the JSON object
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("Error parsing JSON:", error);

      // Handle the error or return the request object unmodified
      return request;
    }
  }

  //extract host & path from sourceURL using URL API
  let url = new URL(sourceURL);
  let temporaryHost = url.host;
  let temporaryPath = url.pathname;

  //Filter the event through the Request Context class
  let ch_context = new crowdhandler.RequestContext({ lambdaEvent: event });
  //Instantiate the Gatekeeper class
  let ch_gatekeeper = new crowdhandler.Gatekeeper(
    ch_client,
    ch_context,
    {
      publicKey: publicKey,
    },
    { debug: true }
  );

  //Override the gatekeeper host with the sourceURL
  ch_gatekeeper.overrideHost(temporaryHost);
  //Override the gatekeeper path with the sourceURL
  ch_gatekeeper.overridePath(temporaryPath);

  //If there's a token in the body provide gatekeeper with a pseudo cookie so that it can check that the provided token is valid/promoted
  if (chToken) {
    ch_gatekeeper.overrideCookie(`crowdhandler=${chToken}`);
  }

  //Validate the request
  let ch_status = await ch_gatekeeper.validateRequest();

  //If the request is not promoted, reject the request
  if (!ch_status.promoted) {
    return {
      status: "403",
      statusDescription: "Forbidden",
      headers: {
        "content-type": [
          {
            key: "Content-Type",
            value: "text/plain",
          },
        ],
        "cache-control": [
          {
            key: "Cache-Control",
            value: "max-age=0",
          },
        ],
      },
      body: "Access to this resource is forbidden.",
    };
  }

  //If the request is promoted, allow it to proceed normally
  //set customer headers for recording performance on the request before passing it through
  request.headers["x-crowdhandler-responseID"] = [
    { key: "x-crowdhandler-responseID", value: `${ch_status.responseID}` },
  ];
  request.headers["x-crowdhandler-startTime"] = [
    { key: "x-crowdhandler-startTime", value: `${Date.now()}` },
  ];

  //return the request
  return request;
};

Origin Response

const crowdhandler = require("crowdhandler-sdk");
const publicKey = "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY_HERE";

let ch_client = new crowdhandler.PublicClient(publicKey, { timeout: 2000 });

module.exports.originResponse = async (event) => {
  let request = event.Records[0].cf.request;
  let requestHeaders = event.Records[0].cf.request.headers;
  let response = event.Records[0].cf.response;
  let responseStatus = response.status;

  //convert response status to number
  responseStatus = parseInt(responseStatus);

  //extract the custom headers that we passed through from the viewerRequest event
  let responseID;
  let startTime;

  try {
    responseID = requestHeaders["x-crowdhandler-responseid"][0].value;
  } catch (e) {}

  try {
    startTime = requestHeaders["x-crowdhandler-starttime"][0].value;
  } catch (e) {}

  //Work out how long we spent processing at the origin
  let elapsed = Date.now() - startTime;

  let ch_context = new crowdhandler.RequestContext({ lambdaEvent: event });

  //Instantiate the Gatekeeper class
  let ch_gatekeeper = new crowdhandler.Gatekeeper(
    ch_client,
    ch_context,
    {
      publicKey: publicKey,
    },
    { debug: true }
  );

  //If we don't have a responseID or a startTime, we can't record the performance
  if (!responseID || !startTime) {
    return response;
  }

  //This is a throw away request. We don't need to wait for a response.
  await ch_gatekeeper.recordPerformance({
    overrideElapsed: elapsed,
    responseID: responseID,
    sample: 1,
    statusCode: responseStatus,
  });

  //Fin
  return response;
};

3.) Taking things further...

The examples above are relatively simple solutions to blocking traffic to your API for users that are considered unauthorized by CrowdHandler. 

If you want to play nice with users that are accessing your APIs directly or are concerned about edge cases, you could alter the example code to return a JSON response containing a fully formed waiting room URL. Consult our JS SDK documentation to see how you would get hold of this URL.

With the full, waiting room URL to hand, you could surface it in the response and have your client-side code rewrite the current URL to the waiting room URL.

Remember! This has to be done client-side, rewriting the API requests server-side is essentially the same as returning a 403 response and will redirect the API calls, not the user's browser.

4.) Final notes

While we hope that the examples provided are clear and useful, we understand that sometimes you need to speak to a specialist for advice and clarification. Our integration experts are available via [email protected] and ready to assist where needed.