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Ruby on Rails API

Ruby on Rails API

In this quickstart, you are going to learn how to integrate a Ruby on Rails resource server with FusionAuth. You will protect an API resource from unauthorized usage. You’ll be building it for ChangeBank, a global leader in converting dollars into coins.

The Docker Compose file and source code for a complete application are available at https://github.com/FusionAuth/fusionauth-quickstart-ruby-on-rails-api.

Prerequisites

  • Ruby 2.7.x: This quickstart was built using Ruby 2.7. This example may work on different versions of Rails, but it has not been tested.
  • Rails 7.0.x.x: This quickstart was built using Rails 7.0.7.2. This example may work on different versions of Rails, but it has not been tested.
  • SQLite: This quickstart was built using sqlite3 (please note MacOS comes with sqlite3).
  • Docker: The quickest way to stand up FusionAuth. Ensure you also have docker compose installed.
  • (Alternatively, you can Install FusionAuth Manually).

General Architecture

A client wants access to an API resource at /resource. However, it is denied this resource until it acquires an access token from FusionAuth.

ClientResource ServerFusionAuthGET /resource404 Not AuthorizedPOST /api/login200 Ok(token)GET /resource200 Ok(resource)ClientResource ServerFusionAuth

Resource Server Authentication with FusionAuth

While the access token is acquired via the Login API above, this is for simplicity of illustration. The token can be, and typically is, acquired through one of the OAuth grants.

Getting Started

In this section, you’ll get FusionAuth up and running and create a resource server which will serve the API.

Clone The Code

First off, grab the code from the repository and change into that directory.

git clone https://github.com/FusionAuth/fusionauth-quickstart-ruby-on-rails-api
cd fusionauth-quickstart-ruby-on-rails-api

Run FusionAuth Via Docker

You'll find a Docker Compose file (docker-compose.yml) and an environment variables configuration file (.env) in the root directory of the repo.

Assuming you have Docker installed, you can stand up FusionAuth on your machine with the following.

docker compose up -d

Here you are using a bootstrapping feature of FusionAuth called Kickstart. When FusionAuth comes up for the first time, it will look at the kickstart/kickstart.json file and configure FusionAuth to your specified state.

If you ever want to reset the FusionAuth application, you need to delete the volumes created by Docker Compose by executing docker compose down -v, then re-run docker compose up -d.

FusionAuth will be initially configured with these settings:

  • Your client Id is e9fdb985-9173-4e01-9d73-ac2d60d1dc8e.
  • Your client secret is super-secret-secret-that-should-be-regenerated-for-production.
  • Your example teller username is teller@example.com and the password is password. They will have the role of teller.
  • Your example customer username is customer@example.com and the password is password. They will have the role of customer.
  • Your admin username is admin@example.com and the password is password.
  • The base URL of FusionAuth is http://localhost:9011/.

You can log in to the FusionAuth admin UI and look around if you want to, but with Docker and Kickstart, everything will already be configured correctly.

If you want to see where the FusionAuth values came from, they can be found in the FusionAuth app. The tenant Id is found on the Tenants page. To see the Client Id and Client Secret, go to the Applications page and click the View icon under the actions for the ChangeBank application. You'll find the Client Id and Client Secret values in the OAuth configuration section.

The .env file contains passwords. In a real application, always add this file to your .gitignore file and never commit secrets to version control.

Create Your Ruby on Rails Resource Server Application

Now you are going to create a Ruby on Rails API application. While this section builds a simple API, you can use the same configuration to integrate an existing API with FusionAuth.

We are going to be building an API backend for a banking application called ChangeBank. This API will have two endpoints:

  • make-change: This endpoint will allow you to call GET with a total amount and receive a response indicating how many nickels and pennies are needed to make change. Valid roles are customer and teller.
  • panic: Tellers may call this endpoint to call the police in case of an incident. The only valid role is teller.

Both endpoints will be protected such that a valid JSON web token (JWT) will be required in the Authorization header in order to be accessed. Additionally, the JWT must have a roles claim containing the appropriate role to use the endpoint.

If you simply want to run the application , there is a completed version in the ‘complete-application’ directory. You can use the following commands to get it up and running if you do not want to create your own.

cd complete-application
bundle install
bundle e rails s -p 4001

You can then follow the instructions in the Run the API section started at Get a Token.

Initialize The Application

Initialize the Ruby on Rails application using the following:

rails new your-application --api
cd your-application

Once this is complete, you will see a new directory called your-application with several sub directories.

You need to add the following lines to the Gemfile in the application root directory to include two new dependencies:

gem 'rack-jwt', git: 'https://github.com/FusionAuth/rack-jwt'
gem 'dotenv-rails'

Your full Gemfile will now look like

source "https://rubygems.org"
git_source(:github) { |repo| "https://github.com/#{repo}.git" }

ruby "2.7.5"

# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main"
gem "rails", "~> 7.0.8"

# Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record
gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4"

# Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma]
gem "puma", "~> 5.0"

# Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder]
# gem "jbuilder"

# Use Redis adapter to run Action Cable in production
# gem "redis", "~> 4.0"

# Use Kredis to get higher-level data types in Redis [https://github.com/rails/kredis]
# gem "kredis"

# Use Active Model has_secure_password [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_model_basics.html#securepassword]
# gem "bcrypt", "~> 3.1.7"

# Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem
gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ]

# Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb
gem "bootsnap", require: false

# Use Active Storage variants [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html#transforming-images]
# gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2"

# Use Rack CORS for handling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), making cross-origin AJAX possible
# gem "rack-cors"

gem 'rack-jwt', git: 'https://github.com/FusionAuth/rack-jwt'

gem 'dotenv-rails'

group :development, :test do
  # See https://guides.rubyonrails.org/debugging_rails_applications.html#debugging-with-the-debug-gem
  gem "debug", platforms: %i[ mri mingw x64_mingw ]
end

group :development do
  # Speed up commands on slow machines / big apps [https://github.com/rails/spring]
  # gem "spring"
end

Then, install these new gems, by issuing the following command in your terminal window.

bundle install

Update Routes Config

Update /config/routes.rb to include the two new routes that will be created for /make-change and /panic. Your routes.rb file should now match the below code.

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  resources :make_change, :path => '/make-change'
  resources :panic, :path => '/panic'
end

Add Security

Create a new file to hold your environment variables directly in the your-application directory called .env.development. You will need to add two variables that are used to call your FusionAuth instance FUSIONAUTH_LOCATION and CLIENT_ID, with the values that match below.

# for rails

FUSIONAUTH_LOCATION=http://localhost:9011

CLIENT_ID=e9fdb985-9173-4e01-9d73-ac2d60d1dc8e

Utilizing the environment variables you just added, you can now setup JSON Web Token (JWT) based authentication. Create a new file config/initializers/jwt_rack.rb. This initializer is used to hold configuration settings that are made after all of the frameworks and plugins are loaded.

require 'net/http'
require 'jwt'

source = ENV['FUSIONAUTH_LOCATION'] + '/.well-known/jwks.json'
resp = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(source))
data = resp.body
jwks_hash = JSON.parse(data)
jwks = JWT::JWK::Set.new(jwks_hash)
jwks.select! { |key| key[:use] == 'sig' } # Signing Keys only

p source

jwt_auth_args = {
      secret: nil,
      options: {
        cookie_name: 'app.at',
        iss: ENV['FUSIONAUTH_LOCATION'],
        verify_iss: true,
        aud: ENV['CLIENT_ID'],
        verify_aud: true,
        verify_iat: true,
        verify_expiration: true,
        required_claims: ['applicationId'],
        jwks: jwks,
        algorithm: 'RS256'
      }
}

Rails.application.config.middleware.use Rack::JWT::Auth, jwt_auth_args

Having this code protects your endpoints from anonymous users and passes the JWT payload to the controller. The JWT payload includes roles encoded in the JWT you receive from FusionAuth. The decoded payload of a JWT for a teller might look like this:

{
  "aud": "e9fdb985-9173-4e01-9d73-ac2d60d1dc8e",
  "exp": 1689289585,
  "iat": 1689285985,
  "iss": "http://localhost:9011",
  "sub": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-111111111111",
  "jti": "ebaa4184-2320-47dd-925b-2e18756c635f",
  "authenticationType": "PASSWORD",
  "email": "teller@example.com",
  "email_verified": true,
  "applicationId": "e9fdb985-9173-4e01-9d73-ac2d60d1dc8e",
  "roles": [
    "teller"
  ],
  "auth_time": 1689285985,
  "tid": "d7d09513-a3f5-401c-9685-34ab6c552453"
}

Add Controllers

Create a new file for the MakeChangeController app/controllers/make_change_controller.rb. This controller will verify that the authenticated user has either the teller or customer role. It then takes in the url parameter total to calculate which coins will be returned in the JSON payload.

class MakeChangeController < ApplicationController
    def index
      # further claims/authorization checks
      roles = []
      if request.env['jwt.payload'] && request.env['jwt.payload']['roles']
        roles = request.env['jwt.payload']['roles']
      end
      if (roles & ['teller', 'customer']).empty?
        render json: { message: "You must be a teller or customer for this action." }.to_json, status: :unauthorized
        return
      end
    
      total = params[:total]
      message = "We can make change using"
      begin
      remainingAmount = total.to_f
      rescue message = "Problem converting the submitted value to a decimal.  Value submitted: "+total
      end

      coins = {
        0.25 => "quarters",
        0.10 => "dimes",
        0.05 => "nickels",
        0.01 => "pennies"
      }

      output = {
        Message: message,
        Change: []
      }

      coins.each do |value, coinName|
        coinCount = (remainingAmount / value.to_f).to_i
        remainingAmount = ((remainingAmount - coinCount * value) * 100).round.to_f / 100
        output[:Message] += " " + coinCount.to_s + " " + coinName
        output[:Change].push({Denomination: coinName, Count: coinCount})
      end

      render json: output.to_json, status: :ok
    end
  end

Create a new file for the PanicController app/controllers/panic_controller.rb. This controller will verify that the authenticated user has only the teller role. It will respond with Proper role not found for user. if this role is not found. This route also verifies that this is a POST request and if this is not true it will respond with Only POST method is supported. If both of these tests are passed the controller will return a successful message of We've called the police!.

class PanicController < ApplicationController
  def index
      render json: { message: "Only POST method is supported." }.to_json, status: :unauthorized
  end
  def create
    # further claims/authorization checks
    roles = []
    if request.env['jwt.payload'] && request.env['jwt.payload']['roles']
      roles = request.env['jwt.payload']['roles']
    end
    if (roles & ['teller']).empty?
      render json: { message: "Proper role not found for user." }.to_json, status: :unauthorized
      return
    end
    render json: { message: "We've called the police!" }.to_json, status: :ok
  end
end

Run the API

Start the API resource server by running:

In a command shell window, navigate to the root directory of your application and run the following command to start the server.

bundle e rails s -p 4001

Get a Token

There are several ways to acquire a token in FusionAuth, but for this example you will use the Login API to keep things simple.

You will want to leave the server running in one terminal and open another terminal for the following commands.

First let’s try the requests as the teller@example.com user. Based on the configuration this user has the teller role and should be able to use both /make-change and /panic.

Acquire an access token for teller@example by making the following request

curl --location 'http://localhost:9011/api/login' \
--header 'Authorization: this_really_should_be_a_long_random_alphanumeric_value_but_this_still_works' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
  "loginId": "teller@example.com",
  "password": "password",
  "applicationId": "e9fdb985-9173-4e01-9d73-ac2d60d1dc8e"
}'

Your response should look like the below JSON. Grab the token field (which begins with ey).

{
    "token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6InVOYl9iQzFySHZZTnZMc285VzRkOEprZkxLWSJ9.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.WLzI9hSsCDn3ZoHKA9gaifkd6ASjT03JUmROGFZaezz9xfVbO3quJXEpUpI3poLozYxVcj2hrxKpNT9b7Sp16CUahev5tM0-4_FaYlmUEoMZBKo2JRSH8hg-qVDvnpeu8nL6FXxJII0IK4FNVwrQVFmAz99ZCf7m5xruQSziXPrfDYSU-3OZJ3SRuvD8bMopSiyRvZLx6YjWfBsvGSmMXeh_8vHG5fVkq5w1IkaDdugHnivtJIivHuCfl38kQBgw9rAqJLJoKRHHW0Ha7vHIcS6OCWWMDIIVspLyQNcLC16pL9Nss_5v9HMofow1OvQ9sUSMrbbkipjKq2peSjG7qA",
    "tokenExpirationInstant": 1689353059670,
    "user": {
        ...
    }
}

Make the Request

The code is set up to extract the token from either a cookie or the Authorization header so depending on your preference you can replace --cookie 'app.at=<your_token>' with --header 'Authorization: Bearer <your_token>' when making requests to the API.

Make a request to /make-change with a query parameter total=1.02. Use the token as the app.at cookie.

curl 'http://localhost:4001/make-change?total=1.02' \
--cookie 'app.at=<your_token>'

Alternatively you can make the same request by passing your token in the Authorization header.

curl --location 'http://localhost:4001/make-change?total=1.02' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <your_token>'

Your response should look like this:

{
  "Message": "We can make change using 20 quarters 1 dimes 0 nickels 2 pennies",
  "Change": [
    {
      "Denomination": "quarters",
      "Count": 20
    },
    {
      "Denomination": "dimes",
      "Count": 1
    },
    {
      "Denomination": "nickels",
      "Count": 0
    },
    {
      "Denomination": "pennies",
      "Count": 2
    }
  ]
}

You were authorized, success! You can try making the request without the --cookie or with a different string rather than a valid token, and see that you are denied access.

Next call the /panic endpoint because you are in trouble!

curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:4001/panic' \
--cookie 'app.at=<your_token>'

This is a POST not a GET because you want all your emergency calls to be non-idempotent.

Your response should look like this:

{"message":"We've called the police!"}

Nice, help is on the way!

Now let’s try as customer@example.com who has the role customer. Acquire a token for customer@example.com.

curl --location 'http://localhost:9011/api/login' \
--header 'Authorization: this_really_should_be_a_long_random_alphanumeric_value_but_this_still_works' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
  "loginId": "customer@example.com",
  "password": "password",
  "applicationId": "e9fdb985-9173-4e01-9d73-ac2d60d1dc8e"
}'

Your response should look like the below JSON. Grab the token field (which begins with ey).

{
    "token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6InVOYl9iQzFySHZZTnZMc285VzRkOEprZkxLWSJ9.eyJhdWQiOiJlOWZkYjk4NS05MTczLTRlMDEtOWQ3My1hYzJkNjBkMWRjOGUiLCJleHAiOjE2ODkzNTQxMjMsImlhdCI6MTY4OTM1MzUyMywiaXNzIjoiaHR0cDovL2xvY2FsaG9zdDo5MDExIiwic3ViIjoiMDAwMDAwMDAtMDAwMC0wMDAwLTAwMDAtMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyIiwianRpIjoiYjc2YWMwMGMtMDdmNi00NzkzLTgzMjgtODM4M2M3MGU4MWUzIiwiYXV0aGVudGljYXRpb25UeXBlIjoiUEFTU1dPUkQiLCJlbWFpbCI6ImN1c3RvbWVyQGV4YW1wbGUuY29tIiwiZW1haWxfdmVyaWZpZWQiOnRydWUsImFwcGxpY2F0aW9uSWQiOiJlOWZkYjk4NS05MTczLTRlMDEtOWQ3My1hYzJkNjBkMWRjOGUiLCJyb2xlcyI6WyJjdXN0b21lciJdLCJhdXRoX3RpbWUiOjE2ODkzNTM1MjMsInRpZCI6ImQ3ZDA5NTEzLWEzZjUtNDAxYy05Njg1LTM0YWI2YzU1MjQ1MyJ9.T1bELQ6a_ItOS0_YYpvqhIVknVMNeamcoC7BWnPjg2lgA9XpCmFA2mVnycoeuz-mSOHbp2cCoauP5opxehBR2lCn4Sz0If6PqgJgXKEpxh5pAxCPt91UyfjH8hGDqE3rDh7E4Hqn7mb-dFFwdfX7CMdKvC3dppMbXAGCZTl0LizApw5KIG9Wmt670339pSf5lzD38P9WAG5Wr7fAmVrIJPVu6yv2FoR-pMYD2lnAF63HWKknrWB-khmhr9ZKRLXKhP1UK-ThY1FSnmpp8eNblsBqCxf6WaYxYkdp5_F2e56M4sQwHzrg4P9tZGVCmMri4dShF3Ck7OGa7hel-iIPew",
    "tokenExpirationInstant": 1689354123118,
    "user": {
        ...
    }
}

Now use that token to call /make-change with a query parameter total=3.24

curl --location 'http://localhost:4001/make-change?total=3.24' \
--cookie 'app.at=<your_token>'

Your response should look like this:

{
    "Message": "We can make change using 12 quarters 2 dimes 0 nickels 4 pennies",
    "Change": [
        {
            "Denomination": "quarters",
            "Count": 12
        },
        {
            "Denomination": "dimes",
            "Count": 2
        },
        {
            "Denomination": "nickels",
            "Count": 0
        },
        {
            "Denomination": "pennies",
            "Count": 4
        }
    ]
}

So far so good. Now let’s try to call the /panic endpoint. (We’re adding the -i flag to see the headers of the response)

curl -i --request POST 'http://localhost:4001/panic' \
--cookie 'app.at=<your_token>'

You will get a 401 Unauthorized response with the following message.

{"message":"Proper role not found for user"}

Uh oh, I guess you are not allowed to do that.

Enjoy your secured resource server!

Made it this far? Want a free t-shirt? We got ya.

Thank you for spending some time getting familiar with FusionAuth.

*Offer only valid in the United States and Canada, while supplies last.

fusionauth tshirt

Next Steps

This quickstart is a great way to get a proof of concept up and running quickly, but to run your API in production, there are some things you're going to want to do.

FusionAuth Integration

Security

Troubleshooting

  • I get This site can’t be reached localhost refused to connect. when I call the Login API.

Ensure FusionAuth is running in the Docker container. You should be able to login as the admin user, admin@example.com with a password of password at http://localhost:9011/admin.

  • The /panic endpoint doesn’t work when I call it.

Make sure you are making a POST call and using a token with the teller role.

  • It still doesn’t work

You can always pull down a complete running application and compare what’s different.

git clone https://github.com/FusionAuth/fusionauth-quickstart-ruby-on-rails-api.git
cd fusionauth-quickstart-ruby-on-rails-api
docker compose up -d
cd complete-application
bundle install
bundle e rails s -p 4001