Authentication - Set up access token permissions with Express

Follow the following steps to start configure your authentication endpoint where

Quickstart

1. Install the liveblocks/node package

   $npm install @liveblocks/node

2. Set up authentication endpoint

   Users can only interact with rooms they have access to. You can configure permission access in an api/liveblocks-auth endpoint by creating the liveblocks-auth.ts file with the following code. This is where you will implement your security and define if the current user has access to a specific room.

   liveblocks-auth.ts

   const express = require("express");import { Liveblocks } from "@liveblocks/node";
   const liveblocks = new Liveblocks({  secret: "sk_prod_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",});
   const app = express();app.use(express.json());
   app.post("/api/liveblocks-auth", (req, res) => {  // Get the current user from your database  const user = __getUserFromDB__(req);
     // Start an auth session inside your endpoint  const session = liveblocks.prepareSession(    user.id,    { userInfo: user.metadata },  // Optional  );
     // Implement your own security, and give the user access to the room  if (req.body.room && __shouldUserHaveAccess__(user, req.body.room)) {    session.allow(req.body.room, session.FULL_ACCESS);  }
     // Authorize the user and return the result  const { status, body } = await session.authorize();  return res.status(status).end(body);});

3. Set up the client

   On the front end, you can now replace the publicApiKey option with authEndpoint pointing to the endpoint you just created.

   liveblocks.config.ts

   import { createClient } from "@liveblocks/client";
   const client = createClient({  authEndpoint: "/api/liveblocks-auth",});

   If you need to pass custom headers or data to your endpoint, you can use authEndpoint as a callback instead.

   liveblocks.config.ts

More information

Both userId and userInfo can then be used in your JavaScript application as such:

const self = room.getSelf(); // or useSelf() in Reactconsole.log(self.id);console.log(self.info);