In this part, we completed parts 2 and 3 of the Github OAuth process

Authorizing OAuth Apps

What we accomplished

• Built a NodeJS server to handle authentication process
• To obtain an access_token, we need to provide two API keys: a CLIENT_ID and a SECRET_CLIENT_ID
• However, you're not supposed to provide the SECRET_CLIENT_ID in your front-end code. Even if it's saved as an .env variable, anyone can still pull up this SECRET_CLIENT_ID since it's built into the code.
• So we need to save the SECRET_CLIENT_ID on a server, and complete the Github OAuth from the server in order to keep our SECRET_CLIENT_ID secure.

Some things I learned

• NodeJS + its included http method
• Some initial shortcomings of the http method. For example, when sending or receiving data, it is fairly cumbersome with http. You need to manage the BufferStreams and concatenate the data pieces together. This is where I just switched to axios so I don't have to deal with all of that.
• Basic CORS policies that need to be set on NodeJS server
• Loading .env variables with dotenv package
• Used nodemon to speed up development. Now I don't have to restart the server every time I make an update to the server.

Remaining Todo

• Host NodeJS server somewhere online so my website can access it
• Merge new code to other branches, so I can start using this OAuth flow