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What is User Authentication?

2:14 with Dave McFarland and Jonathan Foster

Learn about user authentication: what it is, how it works and why web sites use it.

Resources

Prerequisites

  • 0:00

    [MUSIC]

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    Welcome to User Authentication with Express and Mongo DB.

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    In this course, I'll show you how to add a user sign up and log in form to a website.

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    This will let you password protect parts of a site and

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    limit access for only those visitors who have an account and are signed in.

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    And when you know who's signed in, you'll be able to customize the experience for

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    each of your site's visitors.

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    You're probably pretty used to creating accounts and logging into websites.

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    Maybe use social media sites like Facebook and

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    Twitter, e-commerce sites like Amazon or entertainment applications like Netflix.

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    They all require you to create an account with a username and password and

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    usually a bunch of other information, like your email home address and so on.

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    After you create an account, you use the service by logging into the site.

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    You type your username and password into a log in form.

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    This provides credentials to the web server to prove you are who you say you

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    are, once you're logged in or authenticated you can access pages and

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    information that other people can't like your Amazon order history or

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    direct messages on Twitter.

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    In fact, you're experiencing user authentication right now

  • 1:12

    here on Treehouse.

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    You had to sign up to join Treehouse, and you had to log in to access this course.

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    Because you're authenticated, we know who you are.

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    We can display your name, your picture, and

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    the number of points you've earned as a Treehouse student.

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    We know which course you're taking, and what video you'll be watching next.

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    And we can recommend other courses and

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    workshops based on what you've already watched here.

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    Authentication has two benefits.

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    First, it provides password protection to hide content from unauthorized users.

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    For example, only students who are logged in get to view this video and

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    take this course.

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    But more importantly, authentication lets us customize the learning experience for

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    you, because we know you're the one who's logged into this page right now.

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    Pretty cool, right?

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    To get the most from these lessons, you should be familiar with Node,

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    npm, Express, and Mongo, and have taken the prerequisites for this course.

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    See the teacher's notes on this page for

  • 2:09

    links to the courses you should have taken before this one.

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    Okay, let's get started.

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