How to build a public Adobe Experience Manager integration: Building the Auth Flow

Aug 3, 2024 • 6 minute read

Hey there, fellow JavaScript devs! Ready to dive into the world of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) integrations? Today, we're going to focus on one of the most crucial aspects of building a public AEM integration: the authorization flow. Buckle up, because we're about to make your integration secure and user-friendly!

Prerequisites

Before we jump in, make sure you've got:

An AEM instance up and running
Node.js and npm installed on your machine
A solid grasp of OAuth 2.0 (don't worry if you're a bit rusty, we'll cover the essentials)

Setting up the project

Let's kick things off by setting up our project:

mkdir aem-integration && cd aem-integration
npm init -y
npm install express axios dotenv

Registering the application

Head over to the Adobe Developer Console and create a new integration. You'll need to grab your client ID and client secret – keep these safe, they're the keys to your kingdom!

Implementing the auth flow

Now for the fun part – let's build our auth flow!

Setting up the server

Create an index.js file and add this basic Express server setup:

require('dotenv').config();
const express = require('express');
const axios = require('axios');

const app = express();
const port = 3000;

app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Server running on port ${port}`));

Add a login route to kick off the auth process:

app.get('/login', (req, res) => {
  const authUrl = `https://ims-na1.adobelogin.com/ims/authorize?client_id=${process.env.CLIENT_ID}&redirect_uri=${encodeURIComponent(process.env.REDIRECT_URI)}&response_type=code&scope=openid,AdobeID`;
  res.redirect(authUrl);
});

Handling the callback

Now, let's handle the callback from Adobe:

app.get('/callback', async (req, res) => {
  const { code } = req.query;
  try {
    const tokenResponse = await axios.post('https://ims-na1.adobelogin.com/ims/token', null, {
      params: {
        grant_type: 'authorization_code',
        client_id: process.env.CLIENT_ID,
        client_secret: process.env.CLIENT_SECRET,
        code,
        redirect_uri: process.env.REDIRECT_URI
      }
    });
    // Store tokens securely and redirect to your app
    res.redirect('/dashboard');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error exchanging code for token:', error);
    res.status(500).send('Authentication failed');
  }
});

Securing the integration

To beef up security, let's implement PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange):

const crypto = require('crypto');

function generateCodeVerifier() {
  return crypto.randomBytes(32).toString('hex');
}

function generateCodeChallenge(verifier) {
  return crypto.createHash('sha256').update(verifier).digest('base64')
    .replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_').replace(/=/g, '');
}

// Use these in your login route
const codeVerifier = generateCodeVerifier();
const codeChallenge = generateCodeChallenge(codeVerifier);

Don't forget to handle token expiration and implement a refresh mechanism!

Testing the auth flow

Set up a simple front-end to test your auth flow. A basic HTML page with a login button will do the trick. Click the button, go through the Adobe login process, and voilà! You should end up back in your app, authenticated and ready to rock.

Best practices and considerations

Always handle errors gracefully. Users should never see a stack trace!
Implement rate limiting to prevent abuse of your integration.
Store tokens securely, preferably encrypted and in a database.

Conclusion

And there you have it, folks! You've just built a secure auth flow for your AEM integration. Pat yourself on the back – you're one step closer to AEM integration mastery!

Next up, you'll want to start making those API calls to AEM. But that's a story for another day...

Resources

Happy coding, and may your integrations be ever secure and performant!