GraphQL Server with Authentication & Permissions
September 22, 2020 ยท View on GitHub
GraphQL server with an email-password-based authentication workflow and authentication rules, based on Prisma, graphql-yoga, graphql-shield & Nexus Schema. You can run the database using docker or by using the database file that contains some dummy data at ./prisma/dev.db.
Tech Stack
- Backend:
- PostgreSQL
- Node.js
- Prisma
- TypeScript
- Jest
- GraphQL
- Nexus
How to use
Install dependencies:
npm install
Rename .env.example to .env. Then start up the database.
docker-compose up -d
then docker-compose ps to verify your database has started.
Generate types
npm run generate
Running the database for the first time (run migration scripts)
npm run migrate:up
Starting the GraphQL server
npm run dev
Seeding data
npm run seed
Navigate to http://localhost:4000 in your browser to explore the API of your GraphQL server in a GraphQL Playground.
How to update data models
- update
scheme.prisma - next save the migration
npx prisma migrate save --experimental --name "init-db"(prisma will take a snapshot of the schema and figure out the necessary steps to carry out the migration) - run the migration
npx prisma migrate up --experimental(prisma migrate will use the newly created migration file to run the migration and alter the DB)
Deployment
We are using Heroku to host the database and GraphQL API (PaaS). This means our application will run constantly even if no requests are made to it. (FaaS vs PaaS https://www.prisma.io/docs/reference/tools-and-interfaces/prisma-client/deployment#deployment-paradigms)
Ref: https://www.prisma.io/docs/guides/deployment/deploying-to-heroku
CI/CD
We are using Github Actions.
Prisma Studio (Built in database management tool)
If you want to view the database
npm run studio
Usage
Register a new user
You can send the following mutation in the Playground to sign up a new user and retrieve an authentication token for them:
mutation createUser {
signup(name:"bob", email:"bob@test.com", password: "pass") {
user {
name
}
token
}
}
Log in an existing user
This mutation will log in an existing user by requesting a new authentication token for them:
mutation login {
login(email:"bob@test.com",password:"pass"){
token
user {
id
name
}
}
}
Check whether a user is currently logged in with the me query
For this query, you need to make sure a valid authentication token is sent along with the Bearer-prefix in the Authorization header of the request:
{
"Authorization": "Bearer __YOUR_TOKEN__"
}
With a real token, this looks similar to this:
{
"Authorization": "Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VySWQiOiJjanAydHJyczFmczE1MGEwM3kxaWl6c285IiwiaWF0IjoxNTQzNTA5NjY1fQ.Vx6ad6DuXA0FSQVyaIngOHYVzjKwbwq45flQslnqX04"
}
Inside the Playground, you can set HTTP headers in the bottom-left corner:

Once you've set the header, you can send the following query to check whether the token is valid:
{
me {
id
name
email
}
}
3. Generate Prisma Client
With the updated Prisma schema, you can now also update the Prisma Client API with the following command:
npx prisma generate
This command updated the Prisma Client API in node_modules/@prisma/client.
TODO
- Add tests
- Add Prisma app to docker file
- Figure out how to deploy to other services other than heroku