Simple Admin Panel In NodeJS Express (Free Download)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create a simple admin panel with NodeJS and Express. So you need to create an admin panel for your project, but don’t want to go through all the “crazy stuff”? Here’s a simple version of mine that you can build on – Read on!

Download & Notes

NodeJS Express Admin Panel

Extras

The End

DOWNLOAD & NOTES

Here is the download link to the example code, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything.

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Source code on GitHub Gist

Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

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NODEJS EXPRESS ADMIN PANEL

All right, let us now get into the details of building a simple admin panel with NodeJS and Express.

QUICK SETUP

Run npm i bcryptjs express ejs body-parser cookie-parser multer jsonwebtoken to install the required modules.
There are 2 folders in this project:
- assets CSS, Javascript, images.
- views HTML templates.

PART 1) HTML TEMPLATE

1A) TOP & BOTTOM HALVES

views/1-top.ejs

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>TEST</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.5">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/1-admin.css">
    <script src="assets/1-admin.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- (A) SIDEBAR -->
    <div id="pgside">
      <!-- (A1) BRANDING OR USER -->
      <div id="pguser" onclick="if(confirm('Sign Off?')){logout();}">
        <input type="hidden" name="logout" value="1">
        <img src="assets/pic.png" id="pguserimg">
        <div class="txt">
          <div id="pgusername"><%= user %></div>
          <div id="pguseracct">account | logoff</div>
        </div>
      </div>
 
      <!-- (A2) MENU ITEMS -->
      <a href="#" class="current">
        <i class="ico">&#9733;</i>
        <i class="txt">Section A</i>
      </a>
      <a href="#">
        <i class="ico">&#9728;</i>
        <i class="txt">Section B</i>
      </a>
      <a href="#">
        <i class="ico">&#9737;</i>
        <i class="txt">Section C</i>
      </a>
    </div>
 
    <!-- (B) MAIN -->
    <main id="pgmain">

views/1-bottom.ejs

    </main>
  </body>
</html>

First, let us start with the HTML template for the admin panel. It may look pretty complicated for some beginners, but keep calm and study closely – This is but a simple 2 columns layout.

<div id="pgside"> The sidebar menu.
<main id="pgmain"> Main content area.

P.S. We are using EJS to handle HTML templates here. Links in the extras section below if you want to study more.

1B) JAVASCRIPT

assets/1-admin.js

function logout () {
  fetch("/out", { method:"POST" })
  .then(res => res.text())
  .then(txt => {
    if (txt=="OK") { location.href = "/"; }
    else { alert(txt); }
  })
  .catch(err => console.error(err));
}

Next, we have a tiny bit of Javascript to handle user logout – Do a simple POST call to /out. We will be using JSON Web Token (JWT) to handle the user session, more on that below.

1C) DUMMY HOME PAGE

assets/1-admin.ejs

<%- include("1-top.ejs"); %>
<h1>IT WORKS!</h1>
<p>You are in the admin panel.</p>
<%- include("1-bottom.ejs"); %>

Lastly, here’s how to create a page with the template. Just sandwich your content between the “top and bottom pieces”.

PART 2) LOGIN PAGE

2A) THE HTML

views/2-login.ejs

<form method="post" id="login" onsubmit="return login()">
  <h1>ADMIN LOGIN</h1>
  <label>Email</label>
  <input type="email" name="email" required value="joy@doe.com">
  <label>Password</label>
  <input type="password" name="password" required value="12345">
  <input type="submit" value="Login">
</form>

With the template out of the way, let us create another login page. Don’t think this needs a lot of explanation. Just a “regular” login form with email and password.

2B) LOGIN JAVASCRIPT

assets/2-login.js

function login () {
  // (A) GET EMAIL + PASSWORD
  var data = new FormData(document.getElementById("login"));
 
  // (B) AJAX REQUEST
  fetch("/in", { method:"POST", body:data })
  .then(res => res.text())
  .then(txt => {
    if (txt=="OK") { location.href = "/"; }
    else { alert(txt); }
  })
  .catch(err => console.error(err));
  return false;
}

To process the login, we will send the email and password to a /in endpoint.

P.S. Remember to remove the email and password values in your own project.

PART 3) EXPRESS SERVER

3A) INITIALIZE

3-server.js

// (A) INITIALIZE
// (A1) LOAD REQUIRED MODULES
// npm i bcryptjs express ejs body-parser cookie-parser multer jsonwebtoken
const bcrypt = require("bcryptjs"),
      path = require("path"),
      express = require("express"),
      bodyParser = require("body-parser"),
      cookieParser = require("cookie-parser"),
      multer = require("multer"),
      jwt = require("jsonwebtoken");
 
// (A2) INIT EXPRESS SERVER
const app = express();
app.set("view engine", "ejs");
app.use(multer().array());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(cookieParser());

So far so good? That’s all for the HTML, and here’s the Express server script. The first section is self-explanatory, we load the required modules and initialize the Express server.

3B) USER ACCOUNTS

3-server.js

// (B) USER ACCOUNTS - AT LEAST ENCRYPT YOUR PASSWORDS!
// bcrypt.hash("PASSWORD", 8, (err, hash) => { console.log(hash); });
const users = {
  "joy@doe.com" : "$2a$08$g0ZKZhiA97.pyda3bsdQx.cES.TLQxxKmbvnFShkhpFeLJTc6DuA6"
};

The lazy way to store users without a database… Yep, I am just keeping things simple here. It’s best to implement a database in your own project for an added layer of security.

3C) JWT SESSION

3-server.js

// (C) JSON WEB TOKEN
// (C1) SETTINGS - CHANGE TO YOUR OWN!
const jwtKey = "YOUR-SECRET-KEY",
      jwtIss = "YOUR-NAME",
      jwtAud = "site.com",
      jwtAlgo = "HS512";
 
// (C2) GENERATE JWT TOKEN
jwtSign = email => {
  // (C2-1) RANDOM TOKEN ID
  let char = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789~!@#$%^&_-", rnd = "";
  for (let i=0; i<16; i++) {
    rnd += char.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * char.length));
  }
 
  // (C2-2) UNIX TIMESTAMP NOW
  let now = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
 
  // (C2-3) SIGN TOKEN
  return jwt.sign({
    iat : now, // issued at - time when token is generated
    nbf : now, // not before - when this token is considered valid
    exp : now + 3600, // expiry - 1 hr (3600 secs) from now in this example
    jti : rnd, // random token id
    iss : jwtIss, // issuer
    aud : jwtAud, // audience
    data : { email : email } // whatever else you want to put
  }, jwtKey, { algorithm: jwtAlgo });
};
 
// (C3) VERIFY TOKEN
jwtVerify = (cookies) => {
  if (cookies.JWT===undefined) { return false; }
  try {
    let decoded = jwt.verify(cookies.JWT, jwtKey);
    // DO WHATEVER EXTRA CHECKS YOU WANT WITH DECODED TOKEN
    // console.log(decoded);
    return decoded["data"];
  } catch (err) { return false; }
};

As mentioned earlier, we are using JWT to handle user sessions. For those who are new, JWT is just an encoded cookie.

(C1) Change the settings to your own.
- Generate or enter your secret key.
- Change the issuer to your site or company name.
- Change the audience to your site URL.
(C2) On successful user login, jwtSign() will create an encoded JWT cookie.
(C3) On subsequent visits, we use jwtVerify() to decode and verify the JWT cookie.

3D) HTML PAGES & ENDPOINTS

3-server.js

// (D) EXPRESS HTTP
// (D1) STATIC ASSETS
app.use("/assets", express.static(path.join(__dirname, "assets")))
 
// (D2) DUMMY ADMIN HOME PAGE - REGISTERED USERS ONLY
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  let user = jwtVerify(req.cookies);
  if (user === false) {
    res.redirect("../login");
  } else {
    res.render("1-admin.ejs", { user : user["email"] });
  }
});
 
// (D3) LOGIN PAGE
app.get("/login", (req, res) => {
  if (jwtVerify(req.cookies) === false) {
    res.render("2-login.ejs");
  } else {
    res.redirect("../");
  }
});
 
// (D4) LOGIN ENDPOINT
app.post("/in", async (req, res) => {
  let pass = users[req.body.email] !== undefined;
  if (pass) {
    pass = await bcrypt.compare(req.body.password, users[req.body.email]);
  }
  if (pass) {
    res.cookie("JWT", jwtSign(req.body.email));
    res.status(200);
    res.send("OK");
  } else {
    res.status(200);
    res.send("Invalid user/password");
  }
});
 
// (D5) LOGOUT ENDPOINT
app.post("/out", (req, res) => {
  res.clearCookie("JWT");
  res.status(200);
  res.send("OK");
});

The HTML pages and endpoints.

/ The dummy admin home page, requires a valid user login to access.
/login The login page.
/in Sign-in process, send the email and password here. Sets a JWT cookie on validation.
/out The sign-out process, simply removes the JWT cookie.

3E) START!

3-server.js

// (E) START EXPRESS SERVER
app.listen(80, () => console.log(`Server running at port 80`));

Lastly, I don’t think this needs any explanation.

EXTRAS

That’s all for the tutorial, and here is a small section on some extras and links that may be useful to you.

WHAT’S NEXT?

As you can see, this is pretty much a working skeleton template. Plenty to be done here:

Complete your own template customizations – Menu items, use your own frameworks, define more “template areas”, etc…
The login mechanism is kind of raw, implement your own database if you want.
Add your own pages and “API endpoints”. Modify the server script and better manage these if you want.
Add more “security stuff”.
- If you add more pages and endpoints, make sure only signed-in users with a valid JWT cookie can access/process.
- Implement CSRF if security is a concern.
- Keep track of user actions, and keep a log of the device/IP address. Hit the user with 2FA if the device/geo IP has changed.

LINKS & REFERENCES

THE END

Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end. I hope that it has helped you to better understand, and if you want to share anything with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DOWNLOAD & NOTES

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

SORRY FOR THE ADS...

NODEJS EXPRESS ADMIN PANEL

QUICK SETUP

PART 1) HTML TEMPLATE

1A) TOP & BOTTOM HALVES

1B) JAVASCRIPT

1C) DUMMY HOME PAGE

PART 2) LOGIN PAGE

2A) THE HTML

2B) LOGIN JAVASCRIPT

PART 3) EXPRESS SERVER

3A) INITIALIZE

3B) USER ACCOUNTS

3C) JWT SESSION

3D) HTML PAGES & ENDPOINTS

3E) START!

EXTRAS

WHAT’S NEXT?

LINKS & REFERENCES

THE END