rancher-torii

Torii is a set of clean abstractions for authentication in Ember.js applications. Torii is built with providers (authentication against a platform), a session manager (for maintaining the current user), and adapters (to persist authentication state).

The API for providers and adapters in Torii is to open, by which we mean creating a new authorization or authenticating a new session, fetch, by which we mean validating an existing authorization (like a session stored in cookies), or close, where an authorization is destroyed.

A provider in Torii is anything a user can authenticate against. This could be an OAuth 2.0 endpoint, your own login mechanism, or an SDK like Facebook Connect. Authenticating against a provider is done via the torii property, which is injected on to routes:

{{! app/templates/post.hbs }}
{{#if hasFacebook}}
  {{partial "comment-form"}}
{{else}}
  <a href="#" {{action 'signInToComment'}}>
    Sign in to comment
  </a>
{{/if}}

// app/routes/post.js
export default Ember.Route.extend({
  actions: {
    signInToComment: function(){
      var controller = this.controllerFor('post');
      // The provider name is passed to `open`
      this.get('torii').open('facebook-connect').then(function(authorization){
        // FB.api is now available. authorization contains the UID and
        // accessToken.
        controller.set('hasFacebook', true);
      });
    }
  }
});

torii.open('facebook') -> #open hook on the facebook provider -> returned authorization

This is authentication only against a provider. If your application provides an adapter, then Torii can also peform session management via the session property, injected onto routes and controllers. This example uses Facebook's OAuth 2.0 API directly to fetch an authorization code.

/* jshint node: true */
// config/environment.js
module.exports = function(environment) {
  var ENV = {
    /* ... */
    torii: {
      // a 'session' property will be injected on routes and controllers
      sessionServiceName: 'session'
      providers: {
        'facebook-oauth2': {
          apiKey:      'facebook-app-id',
          redirectUri: document.location.href
        }
      }
    }
  };
  return ENV;
};

{{! app/templates/login.hbs }}
{{#if session.isWorking}}
  One sec while we get you signed in...
{{else}}
  {{error}}
  <a href="#" {{action 'signInViaFacebook'}}>
    Sign In with Facebook
  </a>
{{/if}}

// app/routes/login.js
export default Ember.Route.extend({
  actions: {
    signInViaFacebook: function(){
      var route = this,
          controller = this.controllerFor('login');
      // The provider name is passed to `open`
      this.get('session').open('facebook-oauth2').then(function(){
        route.transitionTo('dashboard');
      }, function(error){
        controller.set('error', 'Could not sign you in: '+error.message);
      });
    }
  }
});

// app/torii-adapters/application.js
export default Ember.Object.extend({
  open: function(authentication){
    var authorizationCode = authentication.authorizationCode;
    return new Ember.RSVP.Promise(function(resolve, reject){
      Ember.$.ajax({
        url: 'api/session',
        data: { 'facebook-auth-code': authorizationCode },
        dataType: 'json',
        success: Ember.run.bind(null, resolve),
        error: Ember.run.bind(null, reject)
      });
    }).then(function(user){
      // The returned object is merged onto the session (basically). Here
      // you may also want to persist the new session with cookies or via
      // localStorage.
      return {
        currentUser: user
      };
    });
  }
});

session.open('facebook') -> #open hook on the facebook provider -> #open hook on the application adapter -> updated session

Note that the adapter section is left entirely to your application.

Using Torii

Using Torii currently requires an AMD-compatible module loader. Ember-CLI provide this out of the box.

Using Torii as an ember-addon

Torii is configured to be compatible with the ember-cli ember-addon functionality, as of ember-cli version 0.0.37.

If you are using ember-cli at version 0.0.37 or later, you can simply install the torii npm module:

npm install torii --save-dev

The ember-addon hooks will include torii into your app and add its initializers.

Using Torii via bower

Torii is also published as a bower package (as named amd modules). Install via bower:

bower install torii

Next, add Torii to your build pipeline. In Ember-App-Kit you do this in app/index.html. In Ember-CLI, you add the package to the Brocfile.js:

// Your path to torii may be different than the one below, depending on
// your bower configuration.
app.import('vendor/torii/dist/torii.amd.js');

Add Torii's intialization code to your app. Torii exports an amd module named torii/load-initializers, which will add the appropriate application initializers to do Torii's container registrations and injections. You will want to add require('torii/load-initializers')['default'](); to your app.js file after you've defined your app and before you've created it. Here is an example app.js.

Configuring a Torii provider

Now that you have added Torii to your application, you will want to configure at least one authentication provider. Torii looks for a global object at window.ENV.torii.providers that defines a hash of provider names and their options.

Configure a Torii provider. Torii comes with a facebook-connect provider included. To configure torii for the 'facebook-connect' provider with ember-cli, simply add torii to your config/environment.js file:

/* jshint node: true */
module.exports = function(environment) {
  var ENV = {
    /* ... */
    torii: {
      providers: {
        'facebook-connect': {
          appId: 'xxxxx-some-app-id',
          scope: 'email,birthday'
        }
      }
    }
  };
  return ENV;
};

For a non-ember-cli application, you can set the same values on ENV:

// In Ember-App-Kit you will set this in app/index.html
window.ENV = window.ENV || {};
window.ENV['torii'] = {
  providers: {
    'facebook-connect': {
      appId: 'xxxxx-some-app-id',
      scope: 'email,birthday'
    }
  }
};

With those values, we can authenticate the user against Facebook Connect via the torii property injected onto routes, or the session property injected onto routes and controllers (using the session management feature will require you to write an adapter for your application – see notes on session management below).

Providers in Torii

Torii is built with several providers for common cases. If you intend to use another provider for authentication, you will need to create your own.

Writing a provider

Providers have a single hook, open, that must be implemented. It must return a promise:

• open creates a new authorization. An example of this is logging in a user in with their username and password, or interfacing with an external OAuth provider like Facebook to retrieve authorization data.

Torii will lookup providers in the Ember application container, so if you name them conventionally (put them in the app/torii-providers directory) they will be available automatically when using ember-cli or ember app kit.

A minimal provider:

// app/torii-providers/geocities.js
export default Ember.Object.extend({
  // create a new authorization
  open: function(options) {
    return new Ember.RSVP.Promise(function(resolve, reject){
      // resolve with an authorization object
    });
  }
});

Provider hooks should return a promise resolving with an authorization object. Authorization objects should include values like access tokens, or an Ember-Data model representing a session, or minimal user data like UIDs. They may return SDK objects, such as an object with an API for making authenticated calls to an API.

When used via torii.open, the authorization object is passed through to the consumer. An example provider called 'geocities':

// app/torii-providers/geocities.js
export default Ember.Object.extend({
  // credentials as passed from torii.open
  open: function(credentials){
    return new Ember.RSVP.Promise(function(resolve, reject){
      exampleAsyncLogin(
        credentials.username,
        credentials.password,

        // callback function:
        function(error, response) {
          // the promise is resolved with the authorization
          Ember.run.bind(null, resolve, {sessionToken: response.token});
        }
      );
    });
  }
});

// app/routes/application.js
export default Ember.Route.extend({
  actions: {
    openGeocities: function(username, password){
      var route = this;
      var providerName = 'geocities';
      // argument to open is passed into the provider
      this.get('torii').open(providerName, {
        username: username,
        password: password
      }).then(function(authorization){
        // authorization as returned by the provider
        route.somethingWithGeocitiesToken(authorization.sessionToken);
      });
    }
  }
});

The cornerstone of many Torii providers is the popup object, which is injected onto all providers.

Built-in providers

Torii comes with several providers already included:

• Github OAuth2 (Dev Site | Docs)
• LinkedIn OAuth2 (Dev Site | Docs)
• Google OAuth2 (Dev Site | Docs)
• Facebook Connect (via FB SDK) (Dev Site | Docs)
• Facebook OAuth2 (Dev Site | Docs)
• Authoring custom providers is designed to be easy - You are encouraged to author your own.

Supporting OAuth 1.0a

OAuth 1.0a, used by Twitter and some other organizations, requires a significant server-side component and so cannot be supported out of the box. It can be implemented following these steps:

1. Torii provider opens a popup to the app server asking for Twitter auth
2. Server redirects to Twitter with the credentials for login
3. User enters their credentials at Twitter
4. Twitter redirects to app server which completes the authentication
5. Server loads the Ember application with a message in the URL, or otherwise transmits a message back to the parent window.
6. Ember application in the initial window closes the popup and resolves its provider promise.

Session Management in Torii

If you want to use torii's session management state machine, you must opt in to it via the torii configuration. Because of the potential for conflicts, torii will not inject a session property unless you explicitly ask for it in your configuration. To do so, specify a sessionServiceName in your torii config.

To add a session service in Ember-CLI, simply:

// config/environment.js
/* ... */
    torii: {
      // a 'session' property will be injected on routes and controllers
      sessionServiceName: 'session'
    }
/* ... */

Or to do the same in a global configuratoin

window.ENV = window.ENV || {};
window.ENV['torii'] = {
  sessionServiceName: 'session', // a 'session' property will be injected on routes and controllers

  // ... additional configuration for providers, etc
};

Read on about adapters for more information on using torii's session management.

Adapters in Torii

Adapters in Torii process authorizations and pass data to the session. For example, a provider might create an authorization object from the Facebook OAuth 2.0 API, then create a session on your applications server. The adapter would then fetch the user and resolve with that value, adding it to the sessions object.

Again, adapters are looked up on the container, and so if you name them conventionally (put the in app/torii-adapters/) then they are loaded automatically.

Adapters have three hooks that may be implemented. Each must return a promise:

• open - a new session
• fetch - a refreshed session
• close - a closing session

Adapters are flexible, but a common use would be to fetch a current user for the session. By default, the application adapter will handle all authorizations. An example application adapter with an open hook:

// app/torii-adapters/application.js
//
// Here we will presume the store has been injected onto torii-adapter
// factories. You would do this with an initializer, e.g.:
//
// application.inject('torii-adapter', 'store', 'store:main');
//
export default Ember.Object.extend({

  // The authorization argument passed in to `session.open` here is
  // the result of the `torii.open(providerName)` promise
  open: function(authorization){
    var userId = authorization.user,
        store  = this.get('store');
    return store.find('user', userId).then(function(user){
      return {
        currentUser: user
      };
    });
  }
});

The object containing the currentUser is merged onto the session. Because the session is injected onto controllers and routes, these values will be available to templates.

Torii will first look for an adapter matching the provider name passed to session.open (i.e., if you do session.open('geocities'), torii first looks for an adapter at torii-adapters/geocities). If there is no matching adapter, then the session object will fall back to using the application adapter.

Running the tests locally

• Clone the repo git clone [e-mail]:Vestorly/torii.git, cd torii/
• npm install, which will also run bower install
• grunt test for tests.
• Or, to run tests in the browser:
  • Start the server: grunt server
  • Open http://localhost:8000/test/

Running the torii examples locally

• Clone the repo git clone [e-mail]:Vestorly/torii.git, cd torii/
• npm install, which will also run bower install

The torii example apps (at facebook, google, linkedin, etc) are all configured to use http://torii-example.com:8000/example/basic.html as their redirect uri, so you will need to make an alias in your hosts file that points torii-example.com to localhost, and you must view the examples from that same host.

To add this hostname on a Mac:

• sudo vim /etc/hosts
• Add line like this: 127.0.0.1 torii-example.com

The /etc/hosts equivalent filepath on Windows is: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

For more info, see Hosts at wikipedia.

Now, start your server and visit the page:

• grunt server
• open http://torii-example.com/example/basic.html

Generate docs

Use YUIDoc.

• Install: npm install -g yuidocjs
• Generate: yuidoc lib/
• Output will be put into "docs/"

Release a new version

• Bump version in package.json
• Bump version in bower.json
• grunt build-release
• Force commit new/changed files in dist/
• Commit changed bower.json, package.json
• git tag <version>
• git push --tags
• Publishing a version git tag will automatically register a new bower version
• To publish the updated npm module, npm publish ./

How to help

Initial development of Torii was generously funded by Vestorly. Vestorly is a technology company solving the client acquisition problem for professionals in wealth management, and the enterprises that support them. Vestorly's user interface is built entirely with Ember.js and modern web technologies. [e-mail]

Torii aims to provide a flexible set of primitives for creating your application' own authentication solution. There are still a few things we could use help with:

• A non-AMD build of the code
• More testing of sessions
• More documentation
• Publish your own provider or adapter implementation!

We welcome your contributions.