added CSRF helpers authenticityToken and authenticityHeaders

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ Contributors: please follow the recommendations outlined at [keepachangelog.com]
 - React on Rails server rendering now supports contexts outside of browser rendering, such as ActionMailer templates [#486](https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/pull/486) by [eacaps](https://github.com/eacaps).
 - React on Rails now correctly parses single-digit version strings from package.json [#491](https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/pull/491) by [samphilipd ](https://github.com/samphilipd ).
 - Fixed assets symlinking to correctly use filenames with spaces. Begining in [#510](https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/pull/510), ending in [#513](https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/pull/513) by [dzirtusss](https://github.com/dzirtusss) 
+- Added authenticityToken() and authenticityHeaders() javascript helpers for easier use when working with CSRF protection tag generated by Rails [#517](https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/pull/517) by [dzirtusss](https://github.com/dzirtusss) 
 
 ## [6.0.5] - 2016-07-11
 ##### Added

README.md

@@ -415,6 +415,22 @@ Components are created as [stateless function(al) components](https://facebook.g
 ## ReactOnRails JavaScript API
 See [ReactOnRails JavaScriptAPI](docs/api/javascript-api.md).
 
+#### Using Rails built-in CSRF protection in JavaScript
+
+Rails has built-in protection for Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), see [Rails Documentation](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/security.html#cross-site-request-forgery-csrf). To nicely utilize this feature in JavaScript requests, React on Rails is offerring two helpers that can be used as following for POST, PULL or DELETE requests:
+
+```
+import ReactOnRails from 'react-on-rails';
+
+// reads from DOM csrf token generated by Rails in <%= csrf_meta_tags %>
+csrfToken = ReactOnRails.authenticityToken();
+
+// compose Rails specific request header as following { X-CSRF-Token: csrfToken, X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest }
+header = ReactOnRails.authenticityHeaders(otherHeader);
+```
+
+If you are using [jquery-ujs](https://github.com/rails/jquery-ujs) for AJAX calls, than these helpers are not needed because the [jquery-ujs](https://github.com/rails/jquery-ujs) library updates header automatically, see [jquery-ujs documentation](https://robots.thoughtbot.com/a-tour-of-rails-jquery-ujs#cross-site-request-forgery-protection).
+
 ## React Router
 [React Router](https://github.com/reactjs/react-router) is supported, including server side rendering! See:
 

docs/api/javascript-api.md

@@ -34,4 +34,27 @@ The best source of docs is the main [ReactOnRails.js](../../node_package/src/Rea
    * `traceTurbolinks: true|false Gives you debugging messages on Turbolinks events
    */
   setOptions(options)
+
+  /**
+   * Allow directly calling the page loaded script in case the default events that trigger react
+   * rendering are not sufficient, such as when loading JavaScript asynchronously with TurboLinks:
+   * More details can be found here:
+   * https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/blob/master/docs/additional-reading/turbolinks.md
+   */
+  reactOnRailsPageLoaded()
+
+  /**
+   * Returns CSRF authenticity token inserted by Rails csrf_meta_tags
+   * @returns String or null
+   */
+
+  authenticityToken()
+
+  /**
+   * Returns header with csrf authenticity token and XMLHttpRequest
+   * @param {*} other headers
+   * @returns {*} header
+   */
+
+  authenticityHeaders(otherHeaders = {})
 ```

node_package/src/Authenticity.js

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+export default {
+
+  authenticityToken() {
+    const token = document.querySelector('meta[name="csrf-token"]');
+    return token ? token.content : null;
+  },
+
+  authenticityHeaders(otherHeaders = {}) {
+    return Object.assign(otherHeaders, {
+      'X-CSRF-Token': this.authenticityToken(),
+      'X-Requested-With': 'XMLHttpRequest'
+    });
+  },
+};

node_package/src/ReactOnRails.js

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import StoreRegistry from './StoreRegistry';
 import serverRenderReactComponent from './serverRenderReactComponent';
 import buildConsoleReplay from './buildConsoleReplay';
 import createReactElement from './createReactElement';
+import Authenticity from './Authenticity';
 import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
 import context from './context';
 
@@ -68,10 +69,35 @@ ctx.ReactOnRails = {
     }
   },
 
+  /**
+   * Allow directly calling the page loaded script in case the default events that trigger react
+   * rendering are not sufficient, such as when loading JavaScript asynchronously with TurboLinks:
+   * More details can be found here:
+   * https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/blob/master/docs/additional-reading/turbolinks.md
+   */
   reactOnRailsPageLoaded() {
     ClientStartup.reactOnRailsPageLoaded();
   },
 
+  /**
+   * Returns CSRF authenticity token inserted by Rails csrf_meta_tags
+   * @returns String or null
+   */
+
+  authenticityToken() {
+    return Authenticity.authenticityToken();
+  },
+
+  /**
+   * Returns header with csrf authenticity token and XMLHttpRequest
+   * @param {*} other headers
+   * @returns {*} header
+   */
+
+  authenticityHeaders(otherHeaders = {}) {
+    return Authenticity.authenticityHeaders(otherHeaders);
+  },
+
   ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   // INTERNALLY USED APIs
   ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

node_package/tests/Authenticity.test.js

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+import test from 'tape';
+import ReactOnRails from '../src/ReactOnRails.js';
+
+test('authenticityToken and authenticityHeaders', (assert) => {
+  assert.plan(4);
+
+  assert.ok(typeof ReactOnRails.authenticityToken == 'function',
+    'authenticityToken function exists in ReactOnRails API');
+
+  assert.ok(typeof ReactOnRails.authenticityHeaders == 'function',
+    'authenticityHeaders function exists in ReactOnRails API');
+
+  const testToken = 'TEST_CSRF_TOKEN';
+
+  var meta = document.createElement('meta');
+  meta.name = 'csrf-token';
+  meta.content = testToken;
+  document.head.appendChild(meta);
+
+  var realToken = ReactOnRails.authenticityToken();
+
+  assert.equal(realToken, testToken,
+    'authenticityToken can read Rails CSRF token from <meta>');
+
+  var realHeader = ReactOnRails.authenticityHeaders();
+
+  assert.deepEqual(realHeader, { 'X-CSRF-Token': testToken, 'X-Requested-With': 'XMLHttpRequest' },
+    'authenticityHeaders returns valid header with CFRS token'
+  );
+});

node_package/tests/ReactOnRails.test.js

@@ -124,3 +124,4 @@ test('setStore and getStore', (assert) => {
 
   assert.deepEqual(ReactOnRails.stores(), expected);
 });
+