Native Authentication Support
Currently, PubNub does not offer an authentication API solution (only Authorization).
To apply authentication logic to ChatEngine, you must update the [PubNub ChatEngine Function's](pubnubFunctions.md#PubNub CE Function) authPolicy() function to authenticate via a 3rd-Party provider such as GitHub, Facebook, Google, etc.
High Level Design for Supporting 3rd-Party Authentication
Authentication Design Paradigm
ChatEngine developers must implement authentication manually. The most effective approach is to leverage a 3rd-Party authentication API. The general architectural design is as follows:
Architectural design
When a user initializes default ChatEngine, a number of asynchronous requests are made from the ChatEngine client to the PubNub ChatEngine Function serving as the backend. Without authentication, a user would automatically be authorized using their UUID and, optionally, an authKey.
The PubNub ChatEngine Function passes these requests through an authPolicy() function that, by default, allows any user (with the arguments specified above) to connect to ChatEngine. In order to prevent this, a ChatEngine developer must update the PubNub ChatEngine Function's authPolicy() function to make an authentication request attempt against a specified 3rd-party authentication service.
If the 3rd-party authentication attempt is successful, ChatEngine developers may add cached responses via the kvstore module. That way a ChatEngine Function (i.e. backend server) can used the cached responses rather than having to make requests to the 3rd party authentication micro-service on every published ChatEngine message.