How to validate and handle a form in Express (NodeJS) - forms

Is there a preferred form handling and validation library for Express?
I'm really looking for a similar level of abstraction as is found in Django forms - i.e. validation and error reporting in the template.
If the same validation could be used on the client side, that would be great.
Has anyone used, or written, anything good?

It looks like there's a module for this located at https://github.com/caolan/forms. I've never used it, but it seems fairly full featured.

This also looks viable and is still being developed: https://github.com/ctavan/express-validator
Here's an example of validating a form submission (login post request):
exports.login.post = function(req, res){
req.assert('username', 'Enter username').notEmpty();
req.assert('password', 'Enter password').notEmpty();
res.locals.err = req.validationErrors(true);
if ( res.locals.err ) {
if ( req.xhr ) {
res.send(401, { err: res.locals.err });
} else {
res.render('login', { err: res.locals.err });
}
return;
}
//authenticate user, data is valid
};

Related

Mistake in using DOMPurify on the backend to sanitize form data?

I was wondering if it was possible to use DOMPurify to sanitize user input on a form before it is saved to database. Here's what I've got in my routes.js folder for my form post:
.post('/questionForm', (req, res, next) =>{
console.log(req.body);
/*console.log(req.headers);*/
const questions = new QuestionForm({
_id: mongoose.Types.ObjectId(),
price: req.body.price,
seats: req.body.seats,
body_style: req.body.body_style,
personality: req.body.personality,
activity: req.body.activity,
driving: req.body.driving,
priority: req.body.priority
});
var qClean = DOMPurify.sanitize(questions);
//res.redirect(200, path)({
// res: "Message recieved. Check for a response later."
//});
qClean.save()
.then(result => {
//res.redirect(200, '/path')({
// //res: "Message recieved. Check for a response later."
//});
res.status(200).json({
docs:[questions]
});
})
.catch(err => {
console.log(err);
});
});
I also imported the package at the top of the page with
import DOMPurify from 'dompurify';
When I run the server and submit a post request, it throws a 500 error and claims that dompurify.sanitize is not a function. Am I using it in the wrong place, and/or is it even correct to use it in the back end at all?
This might be a bit late, but for others like me happening to run into this use case I found an npm package that seems well suited so far. It's called isomorphic-dompurify.
isomorphic-dompurify
DOMPurify needs a DOM to interact with; usually supplied by the browser. Isomorphic-dompurify feeds DOMPurify another package, "jsdom", as a dependency that acts like a supplementary virtual DOM so DOMPurify knows how to sanitize your input server-side.
In the packages' own words "DOMPurify needs a DOM tree to base on, which is not available in Node by default. To work on the server side, we need a fake DOM to be created and supplied to DOMPurify. It means that DOMPurify initialization logic on server is not the same as on client".
Building on #Seth Lyness's excellent answer --
If you'd rather not add another dependency, you can just use this code before you require DOMPurify. Basically what isometric-dompurify is doing is just creating a jsdom object and putting it in global.window.
const jsdom = require('jsdom');
const {JSDOM} = jsdom;
const {window} = new JSDOM('<!DOCTYPE html>');
global.window = window;

How to stop the user from entering the duplicate record on default save

I have a custom module where there is an email field. Now i want to stop the user if the email is already in the database.
I want to stop the user on save button and show the error. Like when a required field goes empty.
I tried to get some help but was not able to understand it.
Note: I realized after posting this that you are using suitecrm which this answer will not be applicable toward but I will leave it in case anyone using Sugar has this question.
There are a couple of ways to accomplish this so I'll do my best to walk through them in the order I would recommend. This would apply if you are using a version of Sugar post 7.0.0.
1) The first route is to manually create an email address relationship. This approach would use the out of box features which will ensure your system only keeps track of a single email address. If that would work for your needs, you can review this cookbook article and let me know if you have any questions:
https://support.sugarcrm.com/Documentation/Sugar_Developer/Sugar_Developer_Guide_9.2/Cookbook/Adding_the_Email_Field_to_a_Bean/
2) The second approach, where you are using a custom field, is to use field validation. Documentation on field validation can be found here:
https://support.sugarcrm.com/Documentation/Sugar_Developer/Sugar_Developer_Guide_9.2/Cookbook/Adding_Field_Validation_to_the_Record_View/index.html
The code example I would focus on is:
https://support.sugarcrm.com/Documentation/Sugar_Developer/Sugar_Developer_Guide_9.2/Cookbook/Adding_Field_Validation_to_the_Record_View/#Method_1_Extending_the_RecordView_and_CreateView_Controllers
For your example, I would imagine you would do something like this:
Create a language key for your error message:
./custom/Extension/application/Ext/Language/en_us.error_email_exists_message.php
<?php
$app_strings['ERROR_EMAIL_EXISTS_MESSAGE'] = 'This email already exists.';
Create a custom controller for the record creation (you may also want to do this in your record.js):
./custom/modules//clients/base/views/create/create.js
({
extendsFrom: 'RecordView',
initialize: function (options) {
this._super('initialize', [options]);
//reference your language key here
app.error.errorName2Keys['email_exists'] = 'ERROR_EMAIL_EXISTS_MESSAGE';
//add validation tasks
this.model.addValidationTask('check_email', _.bind(this._doValidateEmail, this));
},
_doValidateEmail: function(fields, errors, callback) {
var emailAddress = this.model.get('your_email_field');
//this may take some time so lets give the user an alert message
app.alert.show('email-check', {
level: 'process',
title: 'Checking for existing email address...'
});
//make an api call to a custom (or stock) endpoint of your choosing to see if the email exists
app.api.call('read', app.api.buildURL("your_custom_endpoint/"+emailAddress), {}, {
success: _.bind(function (response) {
//dismiss the alert
app.alert.dismiss('email-check');
//analyze your response here
if (response == '<email exists>') {
errors['your_email_field'] = errors['your_email_field'] || {};
errors['your_email_field'].email_exists = true;
}
callback(null, fields, errors);
}, this),
error: _.bind(function (response) {
//dismiss the alert
app.alert.dismiss('email-check');
//throw an error alert
app.alert.show('email-check-error', {
level: 'error',
messages: "There was an error!",
autoClose: false
});
callback(null, fields, errors);
})
});
},
})
Obviously, this isn't a fully working example but it should get you most of the way there. Hope this helps!

Sails.js Can't set headers after they are sent

I am using sailsjs v0.10.5.
I am trying to redirect to login after verifying user email and update the database before redirect.
I am using redirection in my update callback. But it sending the error after updating the database
'Cant send headers after they are sent'.
The following is the code am using for redirection:
verifyEmail: function(req, res){
var userId = req.param('userId');
User.update({id: userId},{isVerified: true}).exec(function(err, user) {
if (!err) {
req.flash('error', 'Your email is verified please login');
res.redirect('/login'); }else { return res.send(user, 400); }
});
Update waterline function is asynchronous, are you sure there isnt some res method later in the scope that may be fired before?
Its recommended to use return res.* for so-called "terminal methods" see http://sailsjs.org/#/documentation/reference/res/res.forbidden.html?q=notes

Backbone.js with MongoDB passing req.params into exports functions

I am trying to send a request parameter through to an 'exports' method for a mongodb find in an express.js, backbone.js application. I am having a difficult
time getting the parameters to pass through to mongodb and with '#'.
The breakage is the passing of parameters into the exported mongodb function.
Here is the flow of data:
First the request is successfully routed to the 'upcoming' function:
"upcoming/uni/:uni" : "upcoming",
It flows on to the 'upcoming' function without a problem.
upcoming: function(uni) {
console.log("uni: "+uni);
pag.reset();
console.log("Hit upcoming list target");
setCollectionType('upcoming');
var upcomingCourses = buildCollection();
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
// here is the problem how do I pass the parameter value through the fetch?
// Although it may also have to do with '#' please read on.
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
upcomingCourses.fetch({success: function(){
$("#content").html(new ListView({model: upcomingCourses, page: 1}).el);
}});
this.headerView.selectMenuItem('home-menu');
},
The routing for the mongo methods is:
app.get('/upcoming/uni/:uni', mongomod.findUpcoming);
So the following method is exported from the mongodb js file and is executed reliable. However the req.params are not passed through.
Interspersed in the code I have described its' runtime behaviour:
exports.findUpcoming = function(req, res) {
console.log("university", req.params.uni); // This consistently is unpopulated
var uni = req.params.uni;
console.log("Size: "+req.params.length); // This will always be 0
for (var i=0; i < req.params.length; i++) {
console.log("Parameters: "+req.params[i]);
}
db.collection('upcoming', function(err, collection) {
if (typeof uni === 'undefined') {
console.log("The value is undefined");
uni = "Princeton University"; // here we add a string to test it it will work.
}
collection.find({university:uni}).toArray(function(err, items) {
if (err) {
console.log("Error: "+err);
} else {
console.log("No Error");
console.log("Count: "+items.length);
console.log(items[0]['university']);
res.send(items);
}
});
});
};
On additional and important note:
The url, in a working, runtime environment would be:
http://localhost:3000/#upcoming/uni/Exploratorium
This one fails, but the following URL will work in passing the params through these functions however it returns the JSON to the screen rather then
the rendered version:
http://localhost:3000/upcoming/uni/Exploratorium
The problem could be a miss understanding of # and templates. Please, if you see the error enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.
Nothing after the # gets passed to the server. See How to get hash in a server side language? or https://stackoverflow.com/a/318581/711902.
I found a solution to the problem of passing the parameters from the client side to the server side. By changing the url of the collection the parameters will be passed to the server side:
upcomingCourses.url = "/upcoming/uni/"+uni; // <-- here's the ticket where uni is param
upcomingCourses.fetch({success: function(){
$("#content").html(new ListView({model: upcomingCourses, page: 1}).el);
}});
This can be made more elegant but it is a way to pass the parameters on to the server.
Thanks

Field validations in sugarcrm

I just started using SugarCRM CE for the first time (Version 6.5.15 (Build 1083)). I'm quite impressed with the ease of use when adding new fields or modules, but there's one quite indispensable thing that seems to be missing: Validation of user input.
I would for example like to check a lot of things:
Check if a emailadres has a valid format, using some regular expression
Check if a postalcode exists (maybe do a webswervice call to validate it)
Do a calculation to see if a citizen service number is valid
etc.
The only thing I seem to be able to do in studio is make a field required or not, there doesn't seem to be any standard way to execute a validation on a field.
All I can find when I google on it is lots of ways to hack into the source code, like this one: http://phpbugs.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/sugarcrm-adding-javascript-validation-on-form-submit/ And even then I don't find any examples that actually do a validation.
Am I just missing something? Or is editing source code the only way to add this?
I don't think the "standard" validations are available in the CE edition.
What surprises me is that you can't define a validation somewhere and attach it to a field. I kind of expected this, since the rest of the system is very well structured (modules, packages, etc..)
I now for instance created a 11-check, this is a very specific check for a dutch bank account number. to get this to work, I did the following (based upon examples I found googling around):
I added the bank account to contacts in studio and after that edited \custom\modules\Contacts\metadata\editviewdefs.php
I added the following snippets:
'includes'=> array(
array('file'=>'custom/modules/Contacts/customJavascript.js')),
array (
0 =>
array(
'customCode' =>
'<input title="Save [Alt+S]" accessKey="S" onclick="this.form.action.value=\'Save\'; return check_custom_data();" type="submit" name="button" value="'.$GLOBALS['app_strings']['LBL_SAVE_BUTTON_LABEL']>',
),
1 =>
array(
'customCode' =>
'<input title="Cancel [Alt+X]" accessKey="X" onclick="this.form.action.value=\'index\'; this.form.module.value=\''.$module_name.'\'; this.form.record.value=\'\';" type="submit" name="button" value="'.$GLOBALS['app_strings']['LBL_CANCEL_BUTTON_LABEL'].'">'
)
),
And in customJavascript.js i placed this code:
function check_custom_data()
{
if (!eleven_check(document.getElementById("bankaccount_c").value)){
alert ('Bank account not valid');
return false;
} else {
return check_form('EditView');
}
function eleven_check(bankaccount) {
bankaccount=bankaccount.replace(/\D/, "");
charcount=bankaccount.length;
var som=0;
for (i=1; i<10; i++) {
getal=bankaccount.charAt(i-1);
som+=getal*(10-i);
}
if (som % 11==0 && charcount==9) {
return true
} else {
return false
}
}
}
This check now works the way I want it to work, but I'm wondering if this is the best way to add a validation. this way of adding a validation doesn't however accommodate PHP validations, for instance, if I want to validate against some data in the database for one or another reason, I would have to use ajax calls to get that done.
Email validation is in the pro edition, I had assumed it was in CE as well but I'm not 100% sure.
The other 2 are a lot more specific - postcode validation would depend upon your country so would be difficult to roll out. For these you will need to write your own custom validation.
I know its late, but maybe still someone needs this.
You can just add your custom javascript validation as a callback in your vardefs like this:
'validation' =>
array (
'type' => 'callback',
'callback' => 'function(formname,nameIndex){if($("#" + nameIndex).val()!=999){add_error_style(formname,nameIndex,"Only 999 is allowed!"); return false;}; return true;}',
),
I documented it here as its not well documented elsewhere:
https://gunnicom.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/suitecrm-sugarcrm-6-5-add-custom-javascript-field-validation/
You can add custom validation code to the following file: ./custom/modules/.../clients/base/views/record/record.js
There you can add validation code. In this example, I will validate if the phone_number is not empty when an accounts has a customer-type:
EXAMPLE CODE IN RECORD.JS:
({
extendsFrom: 'RecordView',
initialize: function (options) {
app.view.invokeParent(this, {type: 'view', name: 'record', method: 'initialize', args:[options]});
//add validation
this.model.addValidationTask('check_account_type', _.bind(this._doValidateCheckType, this));
},
_doValidateCheckType: function(fields, errors, callback) {
//validate requirements
if (this.model.get('account_type') == 'Customer' && _.isEmpty(this.model.get('phone_office')))
{
errors['phone_office'] = errors['phone_office'] || {};
errors['phone_office'].required = true;
}
callback(null, fields, errors);
}
})
Don't forget to repair en rebuild!
The full documentation can be found here