Node BrowserID Consumer

This is a one-function module for verifying auth tokens with an external BrowserID server (such as Mozilla's).

Usage example -- on the server, using express:

var browserid = require('browserid-consumer');

app.post('/authorize', function(req, res) {
    browserid.verify(req.body.assertion, "localhost:3000", function(err, message) {
        if (err) {
            res.send("Error: authorization failed.");
        } else {
            res.send("Success: " + JSON.stringify(message));
        }
    });
});

On the client, using jQuery:

$(".signin").on("click", function() {
    navigator.id.get(function(assertion) {
        if (assertion) {
            $.ajax({
                url: "/authorize",
                type: "POST",
                data: {assertion: assertion},
                success: function(data) {
                    // tell the user they're signed in.
                },
                error: function(data) {
                    // tell the user something went wrong.
                }
            });
        } else {
            // Signin was cancelled.
        }
    });
    return false;
});

Options

The one function is:

verify(assertion, audience, callback, options)

• assertion: This is the nonce passed by the client to you to verify. The client should have gotten it directly from the identity provider (e.g. Mozilla).

• audience: This is your host name, with port if different than 80.

• callback(err, answer): A function to respond to the identity provider's verification attempt. If there was an error, the answer will be in the first argument, err. If there was no answer, err will be null. The answer looks like:

    {
        "status": "okay", 
        "email": "name@example.com",
        "audience": "https://yoursite.com",
        "expires": 1308859352261,
        "issuer": "browserid.org"
    }
  

  Documentation of this can be found at https://developer.mozilla.org/en/BrowserID/Quick_Setup .

• options: A hash of options. Default values:

  • protocol: Protocol for the identity provider. "https" or "http", default "https"
  • host: Host for the identity provider. Default "browserid.org"
  • port: Port for the identity provider. Default 443.
  • path: Path part of URL for identity provider. Default "/verify"
  • method: Method for request for identity provider. Default "POST"
  • logger: Pass an object with { debug: function(...) {} } to enable debug logging.

Development

Written in coffeescript. Run the example server using cake runserver, and point your browser to http://localhost:3000