Handling 401s globally with Angular

Question

In my Angular 2 project I make API calls from services that return an Observable. The calling code then subscribes to this observable. For example:

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Answer 1

To avoid the cyclic referencing issue that is caused by having services like "Router" being injected into an Http derived class, one must use the post-constructor Injector method. The following code is a working implementation of an Http service that redirects to Login route each time a REST API returns "Token_Expired". Note that it can be used as a substitution to the regular Http and as such, doesn't require to change anything in your application's already existing components or services.

app.module.ts

  providers: [  
    {provide: Http, useClass: ExtendedHttpService },
    AuthService,
    PartService,
    AuthGuard
  ],

extended-http.service.ts

import { Injectable, Injector } from '@angular/core';
import { Request, XHRBackend, RequestOptions, Response, Http, RequestOptionsArgs, Headers } from '@angular/http';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { AuthService } from './auth.service';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/throw';

@Injectable()
export class ExtendedHttpService extends Http {
    private router; 
    private authService;

  constructor(  backend: XHRBackend, defaultOptions: RequestOptions, private injector: Injector) {
    super(backend, defaultOptions);
  }

  request(url: string | Request, options?: RequestOptionsArgs): Observable<Response> {
 
    if (typeof url === 'string') {
      if (!options) {
        options = { headers: new Headers() };
      }
      this.setHeaders(options);
    } else {
      this.setHeaders(url);
    }
    console.log("url: " + JSON.stringify(url) +", Options:" + options);

    return super.request(url, options).catch(this.catchErrors());
  }

  private catchErrors() {

    return (res: Response) => {
        if (this.router == null) {
            this.router = this.injector.get(Router);
        }
        if (res.status === 401 || res.status === 403) {
            //handle authorization errors
            //in this example I am navigating to login.
            console.log("Error_Token_Expired: redirecting to login.");
            this.router.navigate(['signin']);
        }
        return Observable.throw(res);
    };
  }

  private setHeaders(objectToSetHeadersTo: Request | RequestOptionsArgs) {
      
      if (this.authService == null) {
            this.authService = this.injector.get(AuthService);
      }
    //add whatever header that you need to every request
    //in this example I could set the header token by using authService that I've created
     //objectToSetHeadersTo.headers.set('token', this.authService.getToken());
  }
}

Answer 2

Description

The best solution I have found is to override the XHRBackend such that the HTTP response status 401 and 403 leads to a particular action.

If you handle your authentication outside your Angular application you could force a refresh of the current page such that your external mechanism is triggered. I detail this solution in the implementation below.

You could also forward to a component inside your application such that your Angular application is not reloaded.

Implementation

Angular > 2.3.0

Thanks to @mrgoos, here is a simplified solution for angular 2.3.0+ due to a bug fix in angular 2.3.0 (see issue https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/11606) extending directly the Http module.

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Request, XHRBackend, RequestOptions, Response, Http, RequestOptionsArgs, Headers } from '@angular/http';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/throw';


@Injectable()
export class AuthenticatedHttpService extends Http {

  constructor(backend: XHRBackend, defaultOptions: RequestOptions) {
    super(backend, defaultOptions);
  }

  request(url: string | Request, options?: RequestOptionsArgs): Observable<Response> {
    return super.request(url, options).catch((error: Response) => {
            if ((error.status === 401 || error.status === 403) && (window.location.href.match(/\?/g) || []).length < 2) {
                console.log('The authentication session expires or the user is not authorised. Force refresh of the current page.');
                window.location.href = window.location.href + '?' + new Date().getMilliseconds();
            }
            return Observable.throw(error);
        });
  }
}

The module file now only contains the following provider.

providers: [
    { provide: Http, useClass: AuthenticatedHttpService }
]

Another solution using Router and an external authentication service is detailed in the following gist by @mrgoos.

Angular pre-2.3.0

The following implementation works for Angular 2.2.x FINAL and RxJS 5.0.0-beta.12.

It redirects to the current page (plus a parameter to get a unique URL and avoid caching) if an HTTP code 401 or 403 is returned.

import { Request, XHRBackend, BrowserXhr, ResponseOptions, XSRFStrategy, Response } from '@angular/http';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/throw';

export class AuthenticationConnectionBackend extends XHRBackend {

    constructor(_browserXhr: BrowserXhr, _baseResponseOptions: ResponseOptions, _xsrfStrategy: XSRFStrategy) {
        super(_browserXhr, _baseResponseOptions, _xsrfStrategy);
    }

    createConnection(request: Request) {
        let xhrConnection = super.createConnection(request);
        xhrConnection.response = xhrConnection.response.catch((error: Response) => {
            if ((error.status === 401 || error.status === 403) && (window.location.href.match(/\?/g) || []).length < 2) {
                console.log('The authentication session expires or the user is not authorised. Force refresh of the current page.');
                window.location.href = window.location.href + '?' + new Date().getMilliseconds();
            }
            return Observable.throw(error);
        });
        return xhrConnection;
    }

}

with the following module file.

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { HttpModule, XHRBackend } from '@angular/http';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { AuthenticationConnectionBackend } from './authenticated-connection.backend';

@NgModule({
    bootstrap: [AppComponent],
    declarations: [
        AppComponent,
    ],
    entryComponents: [AppComponent],
    imports: [
        BrowserModule,
        CommonModule,
        HttpModule,
    ],
    providers: [
        { provide: XHRBackend, useClass: AuthenticationConnectionBackend },
    ],
})
export class AppModule {
}