Registering users

The LoopBack User model provides methods to register new users and confirm their email addresses. You can also use the loopback-component-passport module to integrate login with Facebook, Google, and other third-party providers.

Registering users with the LoopBack User model

Creating a new user

Create a user (register a user) by adding a model instance, in the same way as for any other model; email and password are the only required properties.

module.exports = function(app) {
  var User = app.models.User;
  User.create({email: 'foo@bar.com', password: 'bar'}, function(err, userInstance) {
    console.log(userInstance);
  });
  //...

Over REST, use the POST /users endpoint to create a new user instance, for example:

REST

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type:application/json"         \
-d '{"email": "me@domain.com", "password": "secret"}'   \
http://localhost:3000/api/users

For more information, see User REST API.

Adding other registration constraints

Typically, you might want to add methods as part of the registration process, for example to see if a given username is available or if an email address is already registered. A good way to do this is to add methods as beforeRemote hooks on the User object. See Remote hooks for more information.

Verifying email addresses

Typically, an application will require users to verify their email addresses before being able to login. This will send an email to the user containing a link to verify their address. Once the user follows the link they will be redirected to web root (“/”) and will be able to login normally.

To enforce this constraint, set the emailVerificationRequired user model property to true; in server/model-config.json.

For example:

...
"user": {
    "dataSource": "db",
    "public": true,
    "options": {
      "emailVerificationRequired": true
    }
...

Over REST, use the GET /users/confirm endpoint to verify a user’s email address. For details, see User REST API.

This example creates a remote hook on the User model executed after the create() method is called.

var config = require('../../server/config.json');
var path = require('path');

module.exports = function(user) {
  //send verification email after registration
  user.afterRemote('create', function(context, userInstance, next) {
    console.log('> user.afterRemote triggered');

    var options = {
      type: 'email',
      to: userInstance.email,
      from: 'noreply@loopback.com',
      subject: 'Thanks for registering.',
      template: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../server/views/verify.ejs'),
      redirect: '/verified',
      user: user
    };

    userInstance.verify(options, function(err, response, next) {
      if (err) return next(err);

      console.log('> verification email sent:', response);

      context.res.render('response', {
        title: 'Signed up successfully',
        content: 'Please check your email and click on the verification link ' -
            'before logging in.',
        redirectTo: '/',
        redirectToLinkText: 'Log in'
      });
    });
  });
...

For a complete example, see user.js in loopback-example-user-management.

Then, in your view file (for example, an EJS template):

verify.ejs

This is the html version of your email.
<strong><%= text %></strong>

Registering users through a third-party system

Use the LoopBack Passport component (loopback-component-passport) to enable users to register and log in to your application using existing credentials from:

• Facebook
• Google
• Twitter

For more information, see Third-party login using Passport.