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MERN Authentication Template (JWT)

This is a starter template for a MERN stack application using JSON Web Tokens (JWT). The backend is built with TypeScript, Express, MongoDB and Resend (for sending emails). There is also a Postman collection for testing the API. JWTs are stored in secure, HTTP-only cookies. The frontend is built with React, Chakra UI and React Query.

Includes:

  • register, login, logout, profile, account verification, password reset
  • send emails for account verification and password reset
  • get and remove sessions
  • frontend forms for login, register, reset password, etc.
  • custom react hooks to manage auth state & application data

API Architecture

The API is built using different layers: routes, controllers, services and models.

  • Routes are responsible for handling the incoming requests and forwarding them to the appropriate controller.
  • Controllers are responsible for validating the request, calling the appropriate service, and sending back the response.
  • Services are responsible for handling the business logic. They interact with the database and any external services. Services may also call other services.
  • Models are responsible for interacting with the database. They contain the schema and any model utility methods.

*** For simple GET or DELETE requests that don't require any business logic, the controller may directly interact with the model.

Error Handling

Errors are handled using a custom error handler middleware. The error handler middleware catches all errors that occur in the application and processes them accordingly. Each controller needs to be wrapped with the errorCatch() utility function to ensure that any errors that are thrown within the controller are caught and passed on to the error handler middleware.

Authentication Flow

When a user logs in, the server will generate two JWTs: AccessToken and RefreshToken. Both JWTs are sent back to the client in secure, HTTP-only cookies. The AccessToken is short-lived (15 minutes) and is passed on EVERY request to authenticate the user. The RefreshToken is long-lived (30 days) and is ONLY sent to the /refresh endpoint. This endpoint is used to generate a new AccessToken, which will then be passed on subsequent requests.

The frontend has logic that checks for 401 AccessTokenExpired errors. When this error occurs, the frontend will send a request to the /refresh endpoint to get a new AccessToken. If that returns a 200 (meaning a new AccessToken was issued), then the client will retry the original request. This gives the user a seamless experience without having to log in again. If the /refresh endpoint errors, the user will be logged out and redirected to the login page.

Run Locally

To get started, you need to have Node.js installed. You also need to have MongoDB installed locally (download here), or you can use a cloud service like MongoDB Atlas. You will also need to create a Resend account to send emails.

Clone the project

git clone https://github.com/nikitapryymak/mern-auth-jwt.git

Go to the project directory

cd mern-auth-jwt

Navigate to the backend directory

cd backend

Use the right node version (using nvm)

nvm use

Install Backend dependencies

npm install

Before running the server, you need to add your ENV variables. Create a .env file and use the sample.env file as a reference. For development, you can set the EMAIL_SENDER to a random string, since the emails are sent with a resend sandbox account (when running locally).

cp sample.env .env
# open .env and add your variables

Start the MongoDB server (if running locally)

# using homebrew
brew services start [email protected]

Start the API server

# runs on http://localhost:4004 (default)
npm run dev

Navigate to the frontend directory & install dependencies

cd ../frontend
npm install

Create a .env file at the root and add the VITE_API_URL. This is the URL of the backend API.

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:4004

Start the dev server

# runs on http://localhost:5173
  npm run dev

Postman Collection

There is a Postman collection in the backend directory that you can use to test the API. The postman.json contains requests for all the routes in the API. You can import the JSON directly into Postman.

🛠️ Build

To build either the frontend or backend, run the following command in the respective directory:

npm run build

To test the compiled API code, run:

# this runs the compiled code in the dist directory
npm run start