ionic3-feathers app

Demo of Ionic 3 app with FeathersJS backend services.

Features

A simple list of todo items stored on a backend server
Uses Ionic 3 for the app that can be delivered on multiple platforms:
- Webserver
- iOS native app
- Android native app
- Windows/MacOS/Linux desktop app (with addition of Electron, not covered here)
Uses FeathersJS for a NodeJS backend server and a client in the app
Uses slick DataSubscriber wrapper on top of Feathers that streamlines views and components code
Debugging in VSCode (both the app and server back-end)
Automated tests of the server code

There are two ways to get started (Assuming node/npm and git is already installed, if not, google it):

Get the complete code from Github
Follow step-by-step instructions (and get the relevant code from the Github)

Get Started - Get complete code

Get complete code from Github: github.com/iva2k/ionic3-feathers

Note: Make sure to setup private info (passwords, API keys, etc.) in file api/config/private.env before starting server npm start.

$ sudo npm install -g ionic cordova
$ git clone https://github.com/iva2k/ionic3-feathers
$ cd ionic3-feathers
$ npm i
$ cd api
$ npm i
$ cp /config/private.env.template config/private.env
$ npm start

and in a separate terminal run:

$ ionic serve

Get Started - Step-by-Step Instructions

Create an app from scratch following these steps. See source code edits (you can check out commit for the current step) as you go on Github: github.com/iva2k/ionic3-feathers

Step 1. Blank Ionic 3 app

From https://ionicframework.com/getting-started .

First, install NodeJS. Then in a terminal / command line:

$ sudo npm install -g ionic cordova
$ ionic start ionic3-feathers blank
$ cd ionic3-feathers

Fix an error when running without cordova, in src/app/app.component.ts add guard if (platform.is('cordova')) { ... } around statusBar.styleDefault() and splashScreen.hide().

VSCode

To debug Ionic 3 app using VSCode, see this link. In summary, add to package.json:

"config" : {
  "ionic_source_map": "source-map"
},

Create launch.json file for VSCode project in the app directory (use VSCode shortcuts in Debug ribbon):

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Launch in Chrome",
      "type": "chrome",
      "request": "launch",
      "url": "http://localhost:8100",
      "sourceMaps": true,
      "webRoot": "${workspaceRoot}/www"
    }
  ]
}

For debugging, first, run in the VSCode terminal:

$ ionic serve -b

Alternatively see Github for setup in tasks.json file that launches ionic app.

Next, start debug with "Launch in Chrome" configuration.

Android Device

For debugging in VSCode on Android device, see this link.

For Android emulator, either use Andoid Studio (latest has HW accelerated emulator) or see this link, it uses Microsoft's Android Emulator. Windows 7 is not supported by Hyper-V, "Hyper-V Platform" option is available only in > Windows 8.

Install Android Studio, download SDKs and make sure to install:

Android SDK Build-Tools
Android SDK Platform-Tools
Android SDK Tools
Google USB Driver (adb)
Support Repository (Android Support Repository and Google Repository)
Google Play Services

$ ionic cordova platform add android

To avoid issues in Cordova plugins (e.g. EddyVerbruggen/cordova-plugin-googleplus#478), patch file node_modules/cordova-android/bin/templates/project/build.gradle with code (required since 11.2.0 see also this link):

        maven {
            url "https://maven.google.com"
        }

into sections:

buildscript { repositories { ... } }
allprojects { repositories { ... } }

Note: this is a package file, will be overwritten upon updates.

To run on Android phone, plug in, and:

$ ionic cordova run android

Use "Run android on device" configuration (in launch.json file) for debugging in VSCode.

IOS Device

$ ionic cordova platform add ios

See https://moduscreate.com/blog/ionic-cordova-debug-device-visual-studio-code/

Summary

We created minimum functionality Ionic 3 app.

Step 2. Add Feathers Client to Ionic 3

Inspired by https://berndsgn.ch/posts/observables-with-angular-and-feathersjs/ .

$ npm install --save @feathersjs/client socket.io-client
$ npm install --save-dev @types/socket.io-client

Note: What in Angular is called a "service", In Ionic is called a "provider", otherwise they are the same.

$ ionic generate provider Todo

Add files to folder ./src/providers/todo/ (see code on Github):

todo.component.html
todo.component.ts
todo.provider.ts
todo.ts

Modify src/app/app.module.ts to load the provider and component (see code on Github).

Modify src/pages/home.html to use component (see code on Github).

Summary

With all the source code in place, but no server running, the app fills a few dummy items into the Todo list. This will be changed in the next section.

Step 3. Create Feathers server

From Feathers guide https://docs.feathersjs.com/guides/chat/readme.html .

$ npm install @feathersjs/cli -g
$ mkdir api
$ cd api
$ feathers generate app

Answer some questions:

? Project name: api
? Description:  Feather server
? What folder should the source files live in? server
? Which package manager are you using (has to be installed globally)? npm
? What type of API are you making? REST, Realtime via Socket.io

To start server:

$ npm start

To run tests:

$ npm test

Now let's create a backend service using Feathers to respond to the client in the Ionic app. Call the command and answer some questions:

$ feathers generate service
  ? What kind of service is it? NeDB
  ? What is the name of the service? todos
  ? Which path should the service be registered on? /todos
  ? What is the database connection string? nedb://../data

(Skip authentication service in the guide for now)

Add hooks to check and fulfill the incoming data:

$ feathers generate hook
  ? What is the name of the hook? process-todo
  ? What kind of hook should it be? before
  ? What service(s) should this hook be for (select none to add it yourself)? todos
  ? What methods should the hook be for (select none to add it yourself)? create

Edit the generated files (see code on Github).

VSCode

To debug Feathers server code using VSCode, one issue has to be resolved - see VSCode#43093.

In package.json, make a copy and change the start script (to allow VSCode launch.json configuration to insert debug parameter):

    "start:dev"        : "cross-env NODE_ENV=development node server/",
    "start:dev:vscode" : "cross-env NODE_ENV=development node",

Create launch.json file for VSCode project in the app's /api directory (use VSCode shortcuts in Debug ribbon):

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Launch via NPM",
            "type": "node",
            "request": "launch",
            "runtimeExecutable": "npm",
            "runtimeArgs": [
                "run",
                "start:dev:vscode",
                "--"
            ],
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "internalConsoleOptions": "neverOpen",
            "stopOnEntry": false,
            "sourceMaps": true,
            "args": [
                "server/"
            ]
        },

The final dash-dash "--" in runtimeArgs is important - it allows the command that VSCode composes to pass the debugger argument to node. Notice how the "server/" - location for the files to run in node - has moved from the package.json script to "args" part of launch.json configuration. It is appended after the VSCode debug command (which is "--inspect-brk=..."), making node honor it properly.

To debug mocha tests in VSCode, use the following configuration:

in package.json script:

    "test:debug": "npm run clean && cross-env NODE_ENV=test mocha test/ --recursive --exit",

in launch.json:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
    ...
        {
            "name": "Test All",
            "type": "node",
            "request": "launch",
            "runtimeExecutable": "npm",
            "runtimeArgs": [
                "run",
                "test:debug",
                "--"
            ],
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "internalConsoleOptions": "neverOpen",
            "stopOnEntry": false,
            "sourceMaps": true,
            "timeout": 120000
        },

Mocha does not have the hiccup on the appended "--inspect-brk" parameter, so no "args" trick is needed.

Fix tests

Let's implement some additional tests and improve how tests are performed.

The referenced guide provides unit tests, expanding the tests created by the generator.

Though they are good to test individual isolated hooks, the effort is almost wasted, as there are hook inter-dependencies and hook insertion that is not tested.

We could create system/integration tests for the same hooks, keeping the unit tests as proposed, or we could pull in most of the system into the unit tests, drastically increasing code coverage and making more robust regression tests.

Making system/integration hook tests is chosen here as most practical and high ROI change. Also we fix some issues between feathers generate and Mocha.

Use in-memory DB:

$ npm install feathers-memory --save-dev

See its use in: https://docs.feathersjs.com/guides/chat/testing.html

Note: feathers-memory service uses 'id' field name by default, while database-backed services typically use '_id' field name. It creates bugs in tests with in-memory services. Good practice is to force all services to use the same id field, '_id' is preferred in this project.

More test goodies:

$ npm install shx cross-env --save-dev

Test Coverage:

$ npm install nyc --save-dev

Change scripts in package.json to:

wipe out data
measure code coverage with nyc

Add data seeder for development

$ npm install --save feathers-seeder

See file api/server/index.js on Github for the seeder code.

Summary

With all the added source code in place, the app fetches some todo items from the server. These items are auto-generated by the seeder, which will be changed in the next sections.

Step 4. Create user registration and authentication on the server side

From the Feathers guide https://docs.feathersjs.com/guides/chat/authentication.html .

Now let's create a backend authentication service using Feathers to respond to the client in the Ionic app. Call the command and answer some questions:

$ feathers generate authentication
  ? What authentication providers do you want to use? Other PassportJS strategies not in this list can still be configured manually. Username + Password (Local), Google, Facebook
  ? What is the name of the user (entity) service? users
  ? What kind of service is it? NeDB

Start the server in one terminal:

$ npm run start:dev

In another terminal create the user:

$ curl "http://localhost:3030/users/" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data-binary "{ \"email\": \"feathers@example.com\", \"password\": \"secret\" }"

Then get JWT token:

$ curl "http://localhost:3030/authentication/" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data-binary "{ \"strategy\": \"local\", \"email\": \"feathers@example.com\", \"password\": \"secret\" }"

The server will respond with "accessToken". It is just a demo of how it works.

Now we need to secure existing services (e.g. 'todos'). In api/server/services/todos/todos.hooks.js add/change these lines:

const { authenticate } = require('@feathersjs/authentication').hooks;

module.exports = {
  before: {
    all: [ authenticate('jwt') ],

All source are provided on Github, see below summary of changes at the end of this section.

Add a user avatar (using Gravatar)

From the Feathers guide https://docs.feathersjs.com/guides/chat/processing.html .

$ feathers generate hook
  ? What is the name of the hook? gravatar
  ? What kind of hook should it be? before
  ? What service(s) should this hook be for (select none to add it yourself)? users
  ? What methods should the hook be for (select none to add it yourself)? create

Copy the code from Github to api/server/hooks/gravatar.js and api/test/hooks/gravatar.test.js

Populate the Todo Creator

$ feathers generate hook
  ? What is the name of the hook? populate-user
  ? What kind of hook should it be? after
  ? What service(s) should this hook be for (select none to add it yourself)? todos
  ? What methods should the hook be for (select none to add it yourself)? all

Copy the code from Github to api/server/hooks/populate-user.js and api/test/services/populate-user.test.js

Fix / Add More Tests

See the sources on Github. The changes add tests and improve generated code.

Summary

There is a lot of small edits that the generator does:

api/config/default.json
api/package.json
api/server/app.js
api/server/services/index.js

Generator also creates new files:

api/server/authentication.js
api/server/models/users.model.js
api/server/services/users/users.hooks.js
api/server/services/users/users.service.js
api/tests/services/users.test.js

Also review these existing files and add user authentication code:

api/server/channels.js
api/server/index.js
api/server/hooks/process-todo.js
api/server/services/todos/todos.hooks.js
api/server/services/todos/todos.service.js
api/tests/hooks/process-todo.test.js
api/tests/services/todos.test.js

With all the added source code in place, the server now has authentication service, covered by automatic tests. Some users are auto-generated by the seeder. The app is refused connection due to lack of authentication. The services will be connected to the app in the next sections.

Step 5. Create User Login in the app

First we will modify Home page and Todo component to lazy-loading modules, showing how all pages and components will be done for faster app responsiveness:

Add file src/pages/home/home.module.ts
Add @IonicPage() and related import from ionic-angular to src/pages/home/home.ts
Change usages of HomePage component to string 'HomePage' and remove all imports of HomePage.

Do the same for Todo component, import it in home.module.ts and list in its "imports" section.

Next we will create a side menu, similar to "super" and "sidemenu" ionic templates. We will implement it in a separate menu page, and wire it for both navigation and actions using a data table.

$ ionic generate page menu

See code on Github for the edits of generated src/pages/menu/ files and changes to existing files:

src/app/app.component.ts (change rootPage to the new 'MenuPage')
src/app/app.module.ts (add menuType)
src/pages//.html (add menu button to all HTML pages)

Next we will refactor todos provider - move Feathers client into a new provider, so a single service / API connection is used by all various services we will need from Feathers backend.

$ ionic generate provider Feathers

See code on Github for the edits of generated src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts file and changes to existing files:

src/app/app.module.ts (added provider by ionic generate)
src/providers/todo/todo.provider.ts (refactored to use Feathersprovider)

Finally, we will create login/registration page and use Feathers client authentication. We will also add some guards to redirect pages that require auth to login page.

Note that Ionic 3 NavController has very limited guarding functionality, see discussion in ionic#11459. Using ionViewCanEnter() in Ionic 3 is very unreliable, and does not support redirects. Ionic 4 will be using Angular router with robust guard system, but it is not yet released. To solve this issue we use postponed redirects with setTimeout() in guard functions and move guard logic into FeathersProvider to have streamlined guards code.

$ ionic generate page login

See code on Github for the edits of generated src/pages/login/ files and changes to existing files:

config.xml (added to allow keyboard)
package.json and package-lock.json (cordova plugins)
src/app/app.component.ts (guard redirect calback functions)
src/app/app.html (added #navCtrl for app.component.ts NavController)
src/pages/home/home.ts (added ionViewCanEnter() with auth guard)
src/pages/menu/menu.ts (logout implementation)
src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts (login and registration functionality)

Summary

With all the added source code in place, the app is using the backend authentication service - login and registration functions. The app will show all todos by all users. The todos create and edit functions will be added to the app in the next sections.

Step 6. Create todo items from the app and update todos list dynamically

First we will refactor a bit:

Rename 'HomePage' to 'TodosListPage' class and file names and all related strings in the code.
Rename src/providers/todo/todo.component files and move to components/todos-list/todos-list.

Next we will implement new features to view, edit and add todo items:

$ npm install --save clone-deep deep-object-diff
$ ionic generate component TodoItem
$ ionic generate page TodoDetail

See code on Github for the edits of generated src/components/todo-item and src/pages/todo-detail/ files and changes to existing files:

src/components/todos-list/todos-list.html, src/components/todos-list/todos-list.ts ("Edit" button)
src/pages/todos-list/todos-list.html, src/pages/todos-list/todos-list.ts ("Add" button and "Edit" button click)
src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts (Implemented DataSubscriber)

DataSubscriber

DataSubscriber is added to FeathersProvider - it is a very powerful wrapper on top of Feathers client. It makes a breeze to use Feathers in list and detail components and views.

To showcase DataSubscriber, we will refactor TodosListComponent to use DataSubscriber instead of TodoProvider. It will illustrate how much simpler the code becomes, mostly due to no need to generate more custom providers like TodoProvider for each service, instead using in essence a provider factory. See the below code snippet and full code of DataSubscriber in src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts on Github.

First, we will remove TodoProvider, and avoid all further individual providers that we might need if we continue using the pattern like TodoProvider.

Next we will modify TodosListComponent code to look like this:

  ...
  public ngOnInit(): void {
    this.subscription = this.feathersProvider.subscribe<Todo>('todos', {
        $sort: {createdAt: -1},
        $limit: 25
      },
      (todos: Todo[]) => { // cbData
        this.todos = todos;
        this.ref.markForCheck();
      },
      err => { // cbErr
        console.error('Error in FeathersProvider.subscribe(): ', err);
      });
  }

  public ngOnDestroy() {
    this.subscription.unsubscribe();
  }

FeathersProvider.subscribe() takes:

data model type, e.g. <Todo>,
the name of the service (e.g. 'todos'), and
a query object (anything that Feathers accepts),

and it creates:

a provider on the fly,
subscribes to its observable, and
connects it to our callbacks (cbData and cbErr),

All that is done in few lines of code in ngOnInit().

And ngOnDestroy() makes sure that subscription is properly removed.

List views and detail views can both use this simple pattern. Though we still have individual components for todos-list and todo-detail, it is possible to create two universal components (list and detail) based on this pattern, and customize them for any data table / service through their parameters. This is left as an exercise to keep this project small.

Performance

We should be always mindful about the app performance. We already use IOnic's lazy loading, so only smaller chunks of the app are downloaded from the server as needed.

We also utilized "ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush" with explicit calls to ChangeDetectorRef.markForCheck() in the components, so we instruct Angular engine that it does not need to scan for changes upon every network activity, but instead each component issues data update calls only when necessary.

These performance improvements are cumulative and will be more noticeable as the app grows in size.

Wrapping up

We only wired few command buttons so far, but did not complete the worker code. We will wrap up few things, like saving updated and created todo items, and deleting them. See the code on Github for final changes.

Summary

With all the added source code in place, the app has all functions to create, edit and delete todo items, once the user registers or logs in.

Step 7. Improvements

We can make a lot of small and big improvements. Not in any particular order...

(Check Github commits for changesets)

[UX] Convert "Add" button on TodosListPage to material style FAB (floating action button)
[UX] Add "Delete" button to TodosListPage items
[UX] Implement Toast for completed actions/commands
[UX] Move buttons on TodosListPage into slide drawers / swipe
[UX] Show created date/time on TasksListPage
[UX] Show avatar on TasksListPage items, on TaskDetailPage (implemented in underlying components)
[UX] Rearrange and align column widths in TodosListPage items (use ion-col)
[UX] Rearrange and align elements on TodoDetailPage items
[UX] Make Update button on TodoDetailsPage return to the list if entries are unchanged
[UX] Close slide drawer upon transition to next view (so the drawer is closed upon returning)
[Misc] Organize models (move from src/providers/todo/todo.ts to /src/models/), create src/models/user.ts
[UX] Annotate input fields for keyboard domain (e.g. type="email", "password", "tel", "date", etc.)
[UX] Focus on first form field upon entry (LoginPage, TodoDetailPage, added #entryFocus)
[UX] Add icons to fields on LoginPage
[UX] Add validators and polish to LoginPage, TodoDetailPage, also fixed form buttons not activated upon load.
[UX] Form default button on TodoDetailPage
[Server] Reorganize config files, use dotenv to load api/config/private.env (copy and customize private.env.template, do not store private.env in git!), see https://codingsans.com/blog/node-config-best-practices
[Server] Add Gravatar configuration parameters
[Server] In development/testing modes, write local IP address to www/server.json file, and client app reads it for finding server on local netowrk. cd api && npm install --save internal-ip
[Server] Compact NeDB in seeder and upon start. Add autocompaction interval to config.

Step 8. Authentication Management

Based on https://blog.feathersjs.com/how-to-setup-email-verification-in-feathersjs-72ce9882e744 .

Modern apps and services require management of user authentication. Some of the necessary features:

Confirm email
Reset forgotten password
Change account information
Two-factor authentication (2FA)

Just sending emails requires some of the biggest items for any app:

Email service
Email sender
Email formatter
Email templates system
Email styling
Dealing with security restrictions and serious HTML/CSS limitations of all email clients

We will use as much of existing solutions as possible, simplifying the massive job:

SMTP service provider (relying on standard protocol to allow widest variety of email services, with Gmail as default)
Feathers-mailer (Nodemailer based) email sender with SMTP transport
Pug email template files with pug engine (former Jade)
Juice for converting CSS to inline (to support variety of email clients)
Optionally we could use something like npm install postcss-css-variables --save-dev and setting up build process to convert modern CSS to more compatible older versions

First we will setup a feathers service for SMTP email transport on the backend:

$ cd api/
$ npm install --save feathers-mailer nodemailer-smtp-transport
$ feathers generate service
  ? What kind of service is it? A custom service
  ? What is the name of the service? emails
  ? Which path should the service be registered on? /emails
  ? Does the service require authentication? No

Edit the generated files (see code on Github).

Get app password, e.g. for Gmail see https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

Enter Gmail login info into api/config/private.env file:

$ DEV_EMAIL_SERVICE="gmail"
$ DEV_EMAIL_LOGIN="<youraccount>@gmail.com"
$ DEV_EMAIL_PASSWORD="<yourapppassword>"
$ DEV_EMAIL_REPORTS="<youraccount>@gmail.com"

(Do the same for PROD_ and TEST_, note that it allows using different accounts while developing and testing)

When the server is started with NODE_ENV=development, server will send an email to DEV_EMAIL_REPORTS, helping to verify email transport.

Next, let's install and configure backend authentication management, and implement email templating solution:

$ cd api/
$ npm install --save feathers-authentication-management feathers-hooks-common
$ feathers generate service
  ? What kind of service is it? A custom service
  ? What is the name of the service? authManagement
  ? Which path should the service be registered on? /authManagement
     create server\services\auth-management\auth-management.service.js
      force server\services\index.js
     create server\services\auth-management\auth-management.class.js
     create server\services\auth-management\auth-management.hooks.js
     create test\services\auth-management.test.js

Note: path "/authManagement" is hardcoded in feathers-authentication-management client, so we can't use feathers's proposed "/auth-managaement" or any other path.

Modify auth-management code to load feathers-authentication-management (see full code on Github).

We will add pug email templates and a separate styling CSS file (to keep pug templates clean of styling) in api/server/email-templates/account/, and api/server/serviices/auth-management/notifier.js which ties email sending part to auth-management service.

Layout in emails by CSS is very bad, each client has unique limitations, so the main recommendation is to use HTML tables for layout and CSS only for spacing, colors and fonts. See https://www.campaignmonitor.com/dev-resources/guides/coding/

Also, modern CSS (e.g. with variables) won't work in most email clients. We could use CSS processing, but leave it out of this app for now.

$ cd api/
$ npm install --save pug juice

See added code on Github.

Finally, let's add client side features to use authentication management.

In project top directory install feathers-authentication-management in order to use its lib/client for client side:

$ npm install --save feathers-authentication-management

First use of authentication management is to check if email is already registered.

Though it is possible to just try to create a new account every time a user clicks "Register", and rely on server returning an error, we will explicitly do a check just to demonstrate authentication management client. Also this feature will be useful on client-side in password recovery.

See code on Github for few edits to src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts and src/pages/login/login.ts.

Next we will implement a "reset password" button on the LoginPage in the app.

The page will be modified to have tabs (using Ionic segments) for Sign Up / Sign In / Reset, and a bit of animation.

We can make some transition animations in pure CSS, and some (where elements are removed from DOM) in Angular.

Reset code will only send request for password reset email, but no hookup to actually reset the password yet (it will need a separate page and a new route).

We will also add code for displaying buttons for external login, but no implementation yet.

See the code on Github for few edits:

src/pages/login/login.* files (Sign Up / Sign In / Reset, Login with ...)
src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts (using feathers-authentication-management client)
app.module.ts (use Angular animations)
src/models/user.ts (couple fields added to the user model)

To complete the password reset, we need one last piece - a deep-linked page that will take the token from email URL and provide a form to enter a new password.

We will start with a separate page, so it can be deep-linked from email URL.

$ ionic generate page ResetPassword

The ResetPasswordPage is very similar to the LoginPage, though it does not need segments to select different modes and animations to transition between modes, and the fields are slightly different (no Email but Verification Code).

We will use @IonicPage 'segment' to deliver the token to the page in the app from URL link in an email. There is no other way to navigate to that page in the app, which may be needed to deal with situations when links are not working.

See code on Github for the edits of generated src/pages/reset-password/ files.

Summary

With all the added source code in place, the app has all functions, including minimal account management.

Some thoughts on the features developed in this step:

Error handling on ResetPasswordPage could be smoother for UX, e.g. navigating to login/reset if verification code was rejected.
Though from technical implementation perspective it makes sense to have ResetPasswordPage separate from LoginPage, the workflow would be much smoother from UX perspective if it was done on a single page with segment selector. However, it will be much more convoluted design with hiding segments depending on logged in state, and managing page layout.
Typically there's a separate "change password" form elsewhere, which uses old password and takes new password. This feature is easily replaced by "reset" request followed by "reset password", which also does email confirmation, so is much more secure against compromised passwords.

Step 9. Login With X

"Login With X" (a.k.a. "Social login") is a must of modern apps. Many users prefer to have single login with one password to remember, and use it across many websites and apps.

See this link for a good general overview of the process: https://github.com/feathersjs/docs/blob/master/guides/auth/recipe.oauth-basic.md (as well as for steps to implement method #1 below).

There are few methods to implement login with OAuth providers:

Use FeathersJS backend support (need a plugin for each login provider, opens in Webview and limited to currently implemented Google, Facebook, Github)
Use custom clients, like @ionic-native/google-plus (limited to what is implemented, but more smooth native UI)
Use client library like Hello.js (unlimited OAuth2 providers, even can do OAuth1)

Each method has its own pluses and minuses.

Methods 1 and 3 use Webview, and recently Google stopped allowing OAuth login on mobile devices (it insists on using native methods). I tried method 2 with @ionic-native/google-plus - it would not load / has current unfixed bugs.

We will use Hello.js in web browser versions, as it works well and gives us most flexibility. On mobile, we have to use native, will try to fix it.

In the end, we will want to have server-side list of providers, so app does not have to be re-released when adding providers. Hello.js supports that goal well (we can implement loading it from CDN, to always have recent updates).

Hello.js Method

_From https://medium.com/@jacobgoh101/social-login-with-feathersjs-back-end-f834e5017230 _.

$ npm install --save hellojs
$ npm install --save-dev @types/hellojs
$ cd api
$ npm install --save feathers-authentication-custom passport-custom axios

On the server side we will create new auth strategy 'social_token'.

On the client side we expand src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts, add buttons and click handlers to the LoginPage, remove direct guard callbacks from src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts and use Events for guards and for the app to react to login/logout.

You will need to get CLIENT_ID for each social login provider, see section "Providers" below to get them.

Copy your CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET into api/config/private.env for server side and into relevant files on client side:

DEV_GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID="987654321012-1234adf1234adf1234adf1234adf1234.apps.googleusercontent.com"
DEV_GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET="abcdefghijk-lmnopqrstuvw"

See the code on Github for few edits:

api/server/utility/verifySocialToken.js
api/server/authentication.js
src/pages/login/login.* files ()
src/app/app.component.ts (Events use for login/logout and guards)
src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts

Native Method

Google: @ionic-native/google-plus

See https://ionicframework.com/docs/native/google-plus/

Get WEB_CLIENT_ID and REVERSED_ID (add iOS app on Google and download .plist file):

Note: .plist from Google has iOS CLIENT_ID - don't use it in WEB_CLIENT_ID! Get CLIENT_ID for Web application.

WEB_CLIENT_ID=<your_WEB_CLIENT_ID> 411586170471-cnmvgerljm4f37518sll69omlo7b6h09.apps.googleusercontent.com REVERSED_CLIENT_ID=<your_REVERSED_CLIENT_ID> com.googleusercontent.apps.411586170471-cnmvgerljm4f37518sll69omlo7b6h09

$ ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-googleplus --variable REVERSED_CLIENT_ID=com.googleusercontent.apps.411586170471-cnmvgerljm4f37518sll69omlo7b6h09 --variable WEB_APPLICATION_CLIENT_ID=411586170471-ijmn4j0hoaote48id4pami5tr3u24t8d.apps.googleusercontent.com
$ npm install --save @ionic-native/google-plus

We will use backend (social_token strategy) from section on Hello.js method (above).

See the code on Github for few edits:

src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts
src/pages/login/login.ts
src/app/app.module.ts
config.xml

To be continued...

Providers

Google

See https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/web/sign-in

Short summary:

With google developer account, visit https://console.developers.google.com/ and create a project, name it ionic3-feathers-todos (or any name you plan to use it as), optionally give it custom project id. Then open credentials page and create OAuth client ID, and follow instructions. Choose "Website" application type.

Copy your web client id and client secret into relevant configuration files.

Add domain names for the app (both request and redirect) into allowed lists.

Add Android app, use bundle from config.xml (note that no hyphens in bundle id)

For debug or production app, run keystore command, on linux:

$ keytool -exportcert -list -v -alias androiddebugkey -keystore ~/.android/debug.keystore
$ keytool -exportcert -list -v -alias <your-key-name> -keystore <path-to-production-keystore>

on Windows:

$ keytool -exportcert -list -v -alias androiddebugkey -keystore %USERPROFILE%\.android\debug.keystore
$ keytool -exportcert -list -v -alias <your-key-name> -keystore <path-to-production-keystore>

Enter the password, by default for "debug.keystore is "android". Copy SHA1 value and paste into Android app field.

To be continued...

CHECKLIST

This checklist was created while working on this app code as a guidance for continuing development of the app.

For all additions:

All services must be enforced to use '_id' (set in the options).
All service tests should check that '_id' field is created, e.g. by assert() on created records.
All hook tests should use service hooks file, not direct instantiation of a single hook (to verify subtle inter-dependencies).
All hook tests should use app.hooks (to verify inter-dependencies, and increase coverage).
All tests produced by feathers generate should be converted from '() => {...}' to 'function() {...}' in describe() and it() functions (Mocha requirement and feathers bug, causes done() race conditions).
All new pages should be converted to lazy-loading modules (add file src/pages/XX/XX.module.ts, add import {IonicPage} from 'ionic-angular'; and decorator @IonicPage() before @Component in src/pages/XX/XX.ts file, and change all usages of component XX to string 'XX', remove all imports of XX component).
All new components should be converted to lazy-loading modules (add file .../XX.module.ts, add import of XXComponentModule to each page module that uses it and remove all imports of XX component).
All new components should use ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush and invoke ChangeDetectorRef.markForCheck() on mutated data.
All UI input fields should be annotated for correct keyboard domain (e.g. type="email", "password", "tel", "date", etc.)

RANDOM

Use feathers-plus CLI

Instead of @feathersjs/cli, use @feathers-plus/cli. Adds GraphQL endpoint, TypeScript, roundtrip generator, JSON schema.

npm install -g @feathers-plus/cli
mkdir feathers-app
cd feathers-app
feathers-plus generate options
# choose all defaults, except "Generate TypeScript code?" Yes

feathers-plus generate app
# choose all defaults, except enter 'server' folder for source files

Then:

npm start
# Runs ok

npm test
# Executes tests, all pass

feathers-plus generate authentication
# choose all defaults, may adjust authentication providers: Username+Password(Local), Google, Facebook (and Github if so desired)

Edit src/services/users/users.schema.?s file, add fields to required: and properties:

// Define the model using JSON-schema
let schema = {
  // !<DEFAULT> code: schema_header
  title: 'Users',
  description: 'Users database.',
  // !end
  // !code: schema_definitions // !end

  // Required fields.
  required: [
    // !code: schema_required
    'email',
    //'firstName',
    //'lastName',
    //'roleId'
    // !end
  ],
  // Fields with unique values.
  uniqueItemProperties: [
    // !code: schema_unique
    '_id'
    // !end
  ],

  // Fields in the model.
  properties: {
    // !code: schema_properties
    _id: { type: 'ID' },
    email: {},
    //firstName: {},
    //lastName: {},
    password: {},
    //roleId: { type: 'ID' }
    // !end
  },
  // !code: schema_more // !end
};

Run re-generator:

feathers-plus generate service 
# Then type in the name of the service "users".
# or:
feathers-plus generate all 
# Answer 'Yes' to "Regenerate the entire application?" question.

Any time it is possible to regenerate secret for the authentication:

feathers-plus generate secret

(Need to copy-paste it into config/default.json by hand). Also makes sense to remove it from config/default.json and place into .env (not tracked in git) using npm i --save nodenv

See:

GraphQL

GraphQL counterpoints: https://apihandyman.io/and-graphql-for-all-a-few-things-to-think-about-before-blindly-dumping-rest-for-graphql/

cannot join queries like join tables in SQL
cannot select sub-properties or flatten objects
cannot predict names for mutations - have to dig in the documentation to find out, possible different naming conventions
handling errors - no systematic way / no standard
how to cache data?
GraphQL does not ease API provider job
GraphQL may have unexpected side effects on data volumes and server usage

Consider Swagger

Swagger is RESTful API description format and set of tools.

Alternatives: OpenAPI/Swagger, Blueprint or RAML specification

See:

It is possible to have RESTful API, Swagger and add GraphQL endpoint later.

Need a single schema definition [Holy Grail]

Need a single schema definition that would be auto-translated into:

Swagger (API docs)
GraphQL (single endpoint API)
Feathers services
Feathers hooks - server
Feathers client (client validation)
ajv (JSON Schema validator)

Looks like most promising path should end in JSON Schema (can use ajv, and there are packages like e.g. feathers-nedb-ajv)

Contenders:

OpenAPI (Swagger)
Joi (from HapiJS)
typeorm
RESTyped https://github.com/rawrmaan/restyped
loopback.io

Classical signup / registration process with email confirmation

Steps needed in a classical signup / registration process with email verification:

Create an account with an email and password
Open Email client (browser or app)
Locate confirmation email (sometimes wait for its arrival for few minutes, go and do something else, return to step #2 later)
Read the Thank you message: "Please confirm your account", locate where to click
Click the "Confirm your email"
Get redirected, read the Thank you message: "Please sign in"
Sign in with email and password

You still there? Now you can actually start using the app...

Summary of annoying inefficiencies:

Enter email and password up to 3 times
Open the app at least twice
Open an email client and search for email at least once
If email is delayed, spin through the step or hang waiting

All that adds to a lot of bad UX, and deters users from using the app.

Signup / registration process without email confirmation

Create an account with email and password
... there's no step 2!

... just start using the app.

But truthfully, email confirmation is just delayed until it is really needed, and user has reasons to confirm the email (e.g. access limited features), so reason is understood.

See https://visible.vc/engineering/signup-flow-without-email-confirmation/

In addition to the linked article, the process can be streamlined without email confirmation, with added lazy confirmation (email is sent anyway, more like a "welcome email" with link to confirm for using advanced / limited features), and forced confirmation when user tries to use limited features.

Icons for Social Logins

Zocial CSS http://zocial.smcllns.com/

TODO:

Consolidate login providers info on server, remove all client IDs from client side.
Verify Google/FB login on mobile.
Toaster notification upon login / logout.
Fingerprint login
Revisit: save login persistently (app, browser, desktop)
Detect and reconnect Feathers client if connection fails, keep retrying.
If persistent login is saved but rejected, show appropriate message (e.g. re-login)
Login should survive server restart. Save JWT to DB? Reissue JWT?
Figure out disappearing menu when setting root to MenuPage in some cases but not others. Can be fixed by removing [swipeBackEnabled]="false". See ionic-team/ionic-framework#7417 and ionic-team/ionic-framework#14947 ionic-team/ionic-framework#14948
Add :id URL/route for detail page; Add add URL/route for detail page; Redirect to master page when linking to detail page without :id/add URL. WHen no router stack in detail page, use setRoot();
[UX] Undo (e.g. Toast: task removed -> undo button). May need to allow "create" with same ID. Or undo on DB backend?
Vulnerability - Apply security fix when available, track ionic-team/ionic-app-scripts#1425 and sass/node-sass#2355
Unify eslint/tslint between Ionic and Feathers server parts.
Tests for Ionic app.
Reorganize folders and scripts so that Ionic app (cordova browser) is built into Feathers api/public folder.
Rename src/providers/feathers/feathers.ts -> src/providers/backend.ts.
Phone logins, SMS verification. See https://medium.com/@hcbh96/the-how-and-why-of-2fa-using-twilio-and-feathers-js-simple-2fa-tutorial-e64a930a57a8
Use JSON schema, see e.g. feathers-nedb-ajv
Patch needed (EddyVerbruggen/cordova-plugin-googleplus#478), meanwhile manually patch node_modules/cordova-android/bin/templates/project/build.gradle

        maven {
            url "https://maven.google.com"
        }

into sections:

buildscript { repositories { ... } }
allprojects { repositories { ... } }

##END

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 132 Commits
.vscode		.vscode
api		api
resources		resources
src		src
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.jsbeautifyrc		.jsbeautifyrc
README.md		README.md
config.xml		config.xml
ionic.config.json		ionic.config.json
ionic.starter.json		ionic.starter.json
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tslint.json		tslint.json

iva2k/ionic3-feathers

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ionic3-feathers app

Features

Get Started - Get complete code

Get Started - Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1. Blank Ionic 3 app

VSCode

Android Device

IOS Device

Summary

Step 2. Add Feathers Client to Ionic 3

Summary

Step 3. Create Feathers server

VSCode

Fix tests

Add data seeder for development

Summary

Step 4. Create user registration and authentication on the server side

Add a user avatar (using Gravatar)

Populate the Todo Creator

Fix / Add More Tests

Summary

Step 5. Create User Login in the app

Summary

Step 6. Create todo items from the app and update todos list dynamically

DataSubscriber

Performance

Wrapping up

Summary

Step 7. Improvements

Step 8. Authentication Management

Summary

Step 9. Login With X

Hello.js Method

Native Method

Google: @ionic-native/google-plus

Providers

Google

CHECKLIST

RANDOM

Use feathers-plus CLI

GraphQL

Consider Swagger

Need a single schema definition [Holy Grail]

Classical signup / registration process with email confirmation

Signup / registration process without email confirmation

Icons for Social Logins

TODO:

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