Switching Backend Frameworks Alters Frontend Behavior

After migrating from a Node.js Express server to Rust Actix Web, our frontend login redirect act changed unexpectedly, even though the client code wasn’t updated.

// Check authentication status in a Node.js service
export const verifyAuth = asyncHandler(async (req, res) => {
  const authCookie = req.cookies.authCookie;
  if (!authCookie) return res.status(401).json({ message: "Login required!" });
  try {
    const userPayload = jwt.verify(authCookie, process.env.SECRET_KEY);
    res.status(200).json(true);
  } catch (error) {
    res.status(401).json(false);
  }
});
// Validate user session in a Rust service
pub async fn auth_check(req: HttpRequest) -> impl Responder {
    match jwt_tools::validate_token(&req) {
        Ok(_) => HttpResponse::Ok().json(true),
        Err(_) => HttpResponse::Unauthorized().json(false),
    }
}

pub fn validate_token(req: &HttpRequest) -> Result<UserClaims, String> {
    if let Some(auth) = req.headers().get("Authorization") {
        if let Ok(token_str) = auth.to_str() {
            let parts: Vec<&str> = token_str.splitn(2, ' ').collect();
            if parts.len() == 2 && parts[0] == "Bearer" {
                return decode_jwt(parts[1]);
            }
        }
    }
    Err("Missing or invalid token.".to_string())
}

fn decode_jwt(token: &str) -> Result<UserClaims, String> {
    // Custom token decoding implementation
    Ok(UserClaims { id: 0, email: "example@example.com".to_string(), exp: 0 })
}

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct UserClaims {
    pub id: i32,
    pub email: String,
    pub exp: usize,
}

The change in backend frameworks can introduce subtle variations in how requests and responses are handled. In my experience, discrepancies in cookie parsing between an Express-based service and Actix Web can lead to differences in authentication behavior. For instance, Express automatically handles cookies using middleware, while Actix may require additional configuration. This can result in unexpected redirect behaviors due to token misinterpretation or header issues. Reviewing and adjusting middleware settings for cookie handling and authorization headers in Actix Web helped resolve similar issues.

hey, i’ve seen that kind of issue before. sometimes rust services don’t auto-handle header case adjustments like node. check if your authheader in rust matches exactly what your frontend expects - it might be a case sensitive mismatch causing the redirect oddities.