Dependencies

First, we need to create a Maven project with some dependencies: (→ Tutorial)

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.javalin</groupId>
        <artifactId>javalin-bundle</artifactId>
        <version>6.3.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Creating controllers

We need something worth protecting. Let’s pretend we have a very important API for manipulating a user database. We make a controller-object with some dummy data and CRUD operations:

  • Java
  • Kotlin
import io.javalin.http.Context;
import java.util.*;

public class UserController {
    public record User(String name, String email) {}

    private static final Map<String, User> users;

    static {
        var tempMap = Map.of(
            randomId(), new User("Alice", "[email protected]"),
            randomId(), new User("Bob", "[email protected]"),
            randomId(), new User("Carol", "[email protected]"),
            randomId(), new User("Dave", "[email protected]")
        );
        users = new HashMap<>(tempMap);
    }

    public static void getAllUserIds(Context ctx) {
        ctx.json(users.keySet());
    }

    public static void createUser(Context ctx) {
        users.put(randomId(), ctx.bodyAsClass(User.class));
    }

    public static void getUser(Context ctx) {
        ctx.json(users.get(ctx.pathParam("userId")));
    }

    public static void updateUser(Context ctx) {
        users.put(ctx.pathParam("userId"), ctx.bodyAsClass(User.class));
    }

    public static void deleteUser(Context ctx) {
        users.remove(ctx.pathParam("userId"));
    }

    private static String randomId() {
        return UUID.randomUUID().toString();
    }
}

import io.javalin.http.Context
import io.javalin.http.bodyAsClass
import java.util.*

object UserController {

    private data class User(val name: String = "", val email: String = "")

    private val users = hashMapOf(
        randomId() to User(name = "Alice", email = "[email protected]"),
        randomId() to User(name = "Bob", email = "[email protected]"),
        randomId() to User(name = "Carol", email = "[email protected]"),
        randomId() to User(name = "Dave", email = "[email protected]")
    )

    fun getAllUserIds(ctx: Context) {
        ctx.json(users.keys)
    }

    fun createUser(ctx: Context) {
        users[randomId()] = ctx.bodyAsClass()
    }

    fun getUser(ctx: Context) {
        ctx.json(users[ctx.pathParam("userId")]!!)
    }

    fun updateUser(ctx: Context) {
        users[ctx.pathParam("userId")] = ctx.bodyAsClass()
    }

    fun deleteUser(ctx: Context) {
        users.remove(ctx.pathParam("userId"))
    }

    private fun randomId() = UUID.randomUUID().toString()

}

Creating roles

Now that we have our functionality, we need to define a set of roles for our system. This is done by implementing the RouteRole interface from io.javalin.security.RouteRole. We’ll define three roles, one for “anyone”, one for permission to read user-data, and one for permission to write user-data.

  • Java
  • Kotlin
import io.javalin.security.RouteRole;

enum Role implements RouteRole { ANYONE, USER_READ, USER_WRITE }

import io.javalin.security.RouteRole

enum class Role : RouteRole { ANYONE, USER_READ, USER_WRITE }

Setting up the API

Now that we have roles, we can implement our endpoints:

  • Java
  • Kotlin
import io.javalin.Javalin;
import static io.javalin.apibuilder.ApiBuilder.*;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Javalin app = Javalin.create(config -> {
            config.router.mount(router -> {
                router.beforeMatched(Auth::handleAccess);
            }).apiBuilder(() -> {
                get("/", ctx -> ctx.redirect("/users"), Role.ANYONE);
                path("users", () -> {
                    get(UserController::getAllUserIds, Role.ANYONE);
                    post(UserController::createUser, Role.USER_WRITE);
                    path("{userId}", () -> {
                        get(UserController::getUser, Role.USER_READ);
                        patch(UserController::updateUser, Role.USER_WRITE);
                        delete(UserController::deleteUser, Role.USER_WRITE);
                    });
                });
            });
        }).start(7070);
        
    }
}

import io.javalin.apibuilder.ApiBuilder.*
import io.javalin.Javalin

fun main() {

    Javalin.create {
        it.router.mount {
            it.beforeMatched(Auth::handleAccess)
        }.apiBuilder {
            get("/", { ctx -> ctx.redirect("/users") }, Role.ANYONE)
            path("users") {
                get(UserController::getAllUserIds, Role.ANYONE)
                post(UserController::createUser, Role.USER_WRITE)
                path("{userId}") {
                    get(UserController::getUser, Role.USER_READ)
                    patch(UserController::updateUser, Role.USER_WRITE)
                    delete(UserController::deleteUser, Role.USER_WRITE)
                }
            }
        }
    }.start(7070)

}

A role has now been given to every endpoint:

  • ANYONE can getAllUserIds
  • USER_READ can getUser
  • USER_WRITE can createUser, updateUser and deleteUser

Now, all that remains is to implement the access-management (Auth::handleAccess).

Implementing auth

The rules for our access manager are simple:

  • When endpoint has ApiRole.ANYONE, all requests will be handled
  • When endpoint has another role set and the request has matching credentials, the request will be handled
  • Otherwise, we stop the request and send 401 Unauthorized back to the client

This translates nicely into code:

  • Java
  • Kotlin
public static void handleAccess(Context ctx) {
    var permittedRoles = ctx.routeRoles();
    if (permittedRoles.contains(Role.ANYONE)) {
        return; // anyone can access
    }
    if (userRoles(ctx).stream().anyMatch(permittedRoles::contains)) {
        return; // user has role required to access
    }
    ctx.header(Header.WWW_AUTHENTICATE, "Basic");
    throw new UnauthorizedResponse();
}

fun handleAccess(ctx: Context) {
    val permittedRoles = ctx.routeRoles()
    when {
        permittedRoles.contains(Role.ANYONE) -> return
        ctx.userRoles.any { it in permittedRoles } -> return
        else -> {
            ctx.header(Header.WWW_AUTHENTICATE, "Basic")
            throw UnauthorizedResponse();
        }
    }
}

Extracting user-roles from the context

There is no ctx.userRoles or userRoles(ctx) built into Javalin, so we need to implement something. First we need a user-table. We’ll create a map(Pair<String, String>, Set<Role>) where keys are username+password in cleartext (please don’t do this for a real service), and values are user-roles:

  • Java
  • Kotlin
record Pair(String a, String b) {}
private static final Map<Pair, List<Role>> userRolesMap = Map.of(
    new Pair("alice", "weak-1234"), List.of(Role.USER_READ),
    new Pair("bob", "weak-123456"), List.of(Role.USER_READ, Role.USER_WRITE)
);

// pair is a native kotlin class
private val userRolesMap = mapOf(
    Pair("alice", "weak-1234") to listOf(Role.USER_READ),
    Pair("bob", "weak-123456") to listOf(Role.USER_READ, Role.USER_WRITE)
)

Now that we have a user-table, we need to authenticate the requests. We do this by getting the username+password from the Basic-auth-header and using them as keys for the userRoleMap:

  • Java
  • Kotlin
public static List<Role> getUserRoles(Context ctx) {
    return Optional.ofNullable(ctx.basicAuthCredentials())
        .map(credentials -> userRolesMap.getOrDefault(new Pair(credentials.getUsername(), credentials.getPassword()), List.of()))
        .orElse(List.of());
}

private val Context.userRoles: List<Role>
    get() = this.basicAuthCredentials()?.let { (username, password) ->
        userRolesMap[Pair(username, password)] ?: listOf()
    } ?: listOf()

When using basic auth, credentials are transferred as plain text (although base64-encoded). Remember to enable SSL if you’re using basic-auth for a real service.

Conclusion

That’s it! You now have a secure REST API with three roles.