Add logout functionality to helix-front by kabragaurav · Pull Request #184 · linkedin/helix

kabragaurav · 2026-05-25T05:24:51Z

Summary

Adds POST /user/logout server route that destroys the Express session and clears the connect.sid cookie
Adds destroy() to the HelixSession TypeScript interface
Adds logout() method to Angular UserService
Replaces the user chip with a mat-menu dropdown offering Sign In and Sign Out
Adds logout() method to AppComponent with snackbar confirmation

Testing Done

Manually verified in browser on localhost:4200:
- Click username chip → dropdown menu shows Sign In and Sign Out with distinct icons
- Sign In opens LDAP dialog, authenticates as before
- Sign Out clears session, chip reverts to "Sign In", snackbar confirms
- After sign out, write operations correctly require re-authentication

helix-ui_logout_flow.mov

No duplicate HTTP calls:

Context

Users had no way to log out or re-authenticate after their identity token expired (~24h), causing 401 errors on write operations while the UI still showed them as logged in. The only workaround was manually clearing cookies in DevTools.

Users had no way to log out or re-authenticate after their identity token expired (~24h), causing 401 errors on write operations while the UI still showed them as logged in. This adds a POST /user/logout server route that destroys the session and clears cookies, a logout() method in UserService, and a dropdown menu on the user chip with Sign In / Sign Out options. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…or handling - Show Sign In only when logged out, Sign Out only when logged in - Clear helixui_identity.token cookie on logout (not just connect.sid) - Pass explicit { path: '/' } to clearCookie for robustness - Remove catchError that silently swallowed logout errors Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

When not logged in, clicking the user chip opens the login dialog directly (original behavior). The dropdown menu with Sign Out only appears when logged in. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

LZD-PratyushBhatt · 2026-05-26T15:38:03Z

@@ -28,10 +28,24 @@
      <span class="helix-title">Helix</span>
    </a>
    <span fxFlex="1 1 auto"></span>
-    <a mat-button (click)="login()">
+    <a mat-button (click)="login()" *ngIf="(currentUser | async) === 'Sign In'">


The new template references (currentUser | async) 4 times in the toolbar. Each | async opens its own subscription and getCurrentUser() returns this.http.get(...), so a single page load fires 4 GET
/user/current calls.

Expose currentUser$ = this.service.getCurrentUser().pipe(shareReplay(1)) once and bind to that, or resolve the value into a plain field in ngOnInit. The old template was already noisy, this doubles
it.

Added shareReplay(1) to getCurrentUser() in user.service.ts. All | async pipes now share a single HTTP call per observable instance.

LZD-PratyushBhatt · 2026-05-26T15:38:50Z

+    <button
+      mat-button
+      [matMenuTriggerFor]="userMenu"
+      *ngIf="(currentUser | async) !== 'Sign In'"


=== 'Sign In' / !== 'Sign In' as a logged-in branch is brittle. If /user/current ever returns null, '', or someone happens to be named "Sign In", the UI breaks. Compute an isLoggedIn boolean (or
isLoggedIn$) and gate the two buttons on that.

Replaced string comparison with an isLoggedIn boolean, derived via tap() on the currentUser observable. Template now uses *ngIf="isLoggedIn" / *ngIf="!isLoggedIn". The tap still checks user !== 'Sign In' internally since the server returns that as the default - changing the server return value risks breaking other consumers.

LZD-PratyushBhatt · 2026-05-26T15:39:24Z

+  protected logout(req: HelixRequest, res: Response) {
+    req.session.destroy((err) => {
+      if (err) {
+        res.status(500).json({ error: 'Logout failed' });
+        return;
+      }
+      res.clearCookie('connect.sid', { path: '/' });
+      res.clearCookie('helixui_identity.token');
+      res.json(true);
+    });
+  }


req.session is typed session?: HelixSession (optional) in d.ts. If a request lands without a session (store flake, tampered cookie, whatever), req.session.destroy(...) throws TypeError and the client
gets a generic 500.

if (!req.session) { res.json(true); return; }

Added if (!req.session) guard before destroy() call. Returns res.json(true) early if session is missing.

LZD-PratyushBhatt · 2026-05-26T15:39:57Z

@@ -11,4 +12,20 @@ interface HelixSession {
  identityToken: any;
  username: string;
  isAdmin: boolean;
+  destroy(callback: (err?: any) => void): void;


PR #186 has destroy(callback?: (err?: any) => void): void (optional) which matches express-session's actual signature. This PR has it required. Mirror #186 so the two PRs don't fight over the same
line at merge.

Changed to callback?: (optional) to match express-session's actual signature. Now consistent with #186.

… null check, optional destroy callback Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

LZD-PratyushBhatt · 2026-05-27T12:23:14Z

@@ -116,4 +123,18 @@ export class AppComponent implements OnInit {
        }
      );
  }
+
+  logout() {


Once #186 lands, AppComponent has a 30s setInterval watching the identity cookie. Your manual Sign Out clears the cookie but doesn't stop that interval. ~30s after the user clicks Sign Out, #186's
watcher detects "no token", pops "Session Expired", calls /logout again, and reloads. User experiences: click Sign Out -> snackbar -> 30s of normal UI -> surprise dialog.

Stop the watcher on manual logout. Either expose a stopExpiryWatch() public method from the watcher logic, or move the handle out of AppComponent into a shared service that both #186 and #184's
logout can drive.

Added clearInterval(this.expiryCheckHandle) at the top of logout() before the API call. Stops the 30s watcher immediately so it won't detect the cleared cookie and fire a surprise dialog.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…store session null check Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

LZD-PratyushBhatt

LGTM

kabragaurav and others added 6 commits May 14, 2026 13:04

Retrigger CI after @angular/common fix in PR #178

c4b7f73

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Retrigger CI - PR #178 merged, @angular/common fix now on master

db2d8f5

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Fix prettier formatting

df57a46

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

kabragaurav changed the base branch from master to dev May 26, 2026 13:55

kabragaurav requested review from LZD-PratyushBhatt, PranaviAncha, arkmish, laxman-ch, ngngwr, proud-parselmouth and thestreak101 as code owners May 26, 2026 13:55

LZD-PratyushBhatt mentioned this pull request May 26, 2026

Add auto-logout on session expiry for helix-front #186

Merged

LZD-PratyushBhatt reviewed May 26, 2026

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Address review: shareReplay for currentUser, isLoggedIn flag, session…

592baf5

… null check, optional destroy callback Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

kabragaurav force-pushed the gkabra/add-logout-helix-clean branch from 9620b72 to 592baf5 Compare May 27, 2026 06:45

LZD-PratyushBhatt reviewed May 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

Gaurav Kabra and others added 3 commits May 27, 2026 18:13

Stop token expiry watcher on manual logout to prevent surprise dialog

7f12e5c

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Merge dev: resolve conflicts, keep isLoggedIn + expiryCheckHandle, re…

9af054e

…store session null check Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Remove duplicate logout method from merge

a81b865

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

LZD-PratyushBhatt approved these changes May 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

kabragaurav merged commit b81fbdf into dev May 27, 2026
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Add logout functionality to helix-front#184

Add logout functionality to helix-front#184
kabragaurav merged 10 commits into
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gkabra/add-logout-helix-clean

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kabragaurav commented May 25, 2026 •

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