An ApolloServer subscription example with passport

A simple example to run a ApolloServer with subscriptions and authorization. The logic in this example contains:

• login functionality using graphql-passport
• message publication using subscriptions
• filtering subscriptions
• checking subscriptions for valid credentials

Direct run

For running in any NodeJS environment you have two options:

• npm run start - runs ts-node and starts the application
• npm run dev - runs ts-node-dev and allows you to do changes in the application with automated respawns

Docker

Using docker-compose

The simplest aproach is to just run:

docker-compose up

Using plain docker

Package also contains a Dockerfile that can be used to isolate the app. The code is inspired by: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/nodejs-docker-webapp/

Build using (use sudo if you haven't added your user to the Docker group - not that adding may be a security issue):

docker build -t <your username>/subscription-app .

To run just write (the --rm makes it easier to clean up the container):

docker run --name subapp --rm -p 49160:4000 -d <your username>/subscription-app

Extra stuff

Additional useful commands:

# Get container ID
$ docker ps

# Print app output
$ docker logs <container id or name ('subapp' if used above run)>

# Enter the container
$ docker exec -it <container id or name ('subapp' if used above run)> /bin/bash

Testing

Then you can connect to it on localhost:4000/graphql and run two simultaneous graphql queries in multiple tabs. Note Once you enter a subscription the context will never change, thus we need to first login:

mutation {
  login(email: "john@doe.com", password: "pwd123") {
    name
  }
}

Then in a new tab, start a subscription:

subscription {
  newMessage
}

The third tab should do a mutation for publishing to the subscription-tab:

mutation {
  addMessage(message: "Testing to send a subscription message")
}

After running the mutation you should see "Testing to send a subscription message" in the subscription tab:

{
  "data": {
    "newMessage": "Testing to send a subscription message"
  }
}

Tips

To test the user login functionality with multiple users you can start an incognito/private window or an alternative browser, load up the playground and see how messages are sent between users.