The Verify script implements the function executed to mark the verification status of a user’s email address in an external database. We recommend naming this function verify. This script is only used in legacy authentication scenarios, and is required to support user email address verification. A verified email address is critical to a number of workflow scenarios in Auth0, and implementing this script will provide support for these out of the box. If it’s enabled, this script is executed when a user clicks on the link in the verification email sent by Auth0.

Verify function

The verify function should:
  • Update the email_verified (or equivalent) attribute in the user’s profile in the external database.
  • Return true if the update action succeeded.
  • Return an error if the update action failed.

Definition

The verify function accepts two parameters and returns a callback function:
verify(email, callback): function
ParameterTypeDescription
emailStringUser’s email address.
callbackFunctionUsed to pass error or profile data through the pipeline.

Example

This is a pseudo-JavaScript example of how you could implement the login function. For language-specific examples, read Language-specific script examples.
function verify(email, callback) {
  // Send email to external database API
  let options = {
    url: "https://example.com/api/verify",
    body: {
      email: email
    }
  };

  send(options, (err) => {
    // Return error in callback if update failed
    if (err) {
      return callback(new Error(email, "My custom error message."));
    } else {
      // Return true in callback if update succeeded
      return callback(null, true);
    }
  });
}

Callback function

The callback function is used to pass user profile data or error data through the pipeline.

Definition

The callback function accepts up to two parameters and returns a function:
callback(error, [verified]): function
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
errorObjectRequiredContains error data.
verifiedBooleanOptionalContains value that represents the user’s verification status in the external database (true or false). Only required if the value is true.

Return a success

If the user’s verification status was updated successfully in the external database, pass a null value for the error parameter, and a true value for the verified parameter.
The Verify script does not change the value of the email_verified attribute in the user’s Auth0 profile, regardless of what value is returned in the callback function.To update the email_verified attribute in the user’s Auth0 profile, you must include the email_verified attribute and its value in the user profile object returned in the Login and Get User scripts.

Example

callback(null, true);

Return an error

If an error occurs, the error parameter should contain relevant information about what went wrong.

Example

return callback(new Error("My custom error message."));

Language-specific script examples

Auth0 provides sample scripts for use with the following languages/technologies:

JavaScript

function verify(email, callback) {
  // This script should mark the current user's email address as verified in
  // your database.
  // It is executed whenever a user clicks the verification link sent by email.
  // These emails can be customized at https://manage.auth0.com/#/emails.
  // It is safe to assume that the user's email already exists in your database,
  // because verification emails, if enabled, are sent immediately after a
  // successful signup.
  //
  // There are two ways that this script can finish:
  // 1. The user's email was verified successfully
  //     callback(null, true);
  // 2. Something went wrong while trying to reach your database:
  //     callback(new Error("my error message"));
  //
  // If an error is returned, it will be passed to the query string of the page
  // where the user is being redirected to after clicking the verification link.
  // For example, returning `callback(new Error("error"))` and redirecting to
  // https://example.com would redirect to the following URL:
  //     https://example.com?email=alice%40example.com&message=error&success=false
  const msg = 'Please implement the Verify script for this database connection ' +
    'at https://manage.auth0.com/#/connections/database';
  return callback(new Error(msg));
}

ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC3 - Universal Providers)

function verify(email, callback) {
  const sqlserver = require('tedious@1.11.0');
  const Connection = sqlserver.Connection;
  const Request = sqlserver.Request;
  const TYPES = sqlserver.TYPES;
  const connection = new Connection({
    userName: 'the username',
    password: 'the password',
    server: 'the server',
    options: {
      database: 'the db name',
      encrypt: true,
      // Required to retrieve userId needed for Membership entity creation
      rowCollectionOnRequestCompletion: true
    }
  });
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
    // if you have connection issues, uncomment this to get more detailed info
    //console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
    // this will show any errors when connecting to the SQL database or with the SQL statements
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function(err) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    verifyMembershipUser(email, function(err, wasUpdated) {
      if (err) return callback(err); // this will return a 500
      callback(null, wasUpdated);
    });
  });
  function verifyMembershipUser(email, callback) {
    // isApproved field is the email verification flag
    const updateMembership =
      'UPDATE Memberships SET isApproved = \'true\' ' +
      'WHERE isApproved = \'false\' AND Email = @Email';
    const updateMembershipQuery = new Request(updateMembership, function(err, rowCount) {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err);
      }
      callback(null, rowCount > 0);
    });
    updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('Email', TYPES.VarChar, email);
    connection.execSql(updateMembershipQuery);
  }
}

ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC4 - Simple Membership)

function verify (email, callback) {
  const sqlserver = require('tedious@1.11.0');
  const Connection = sqlserver.Connection;
  const Request = sqlserver.Request;
  const TYPES = sqlserver.TYPES;
  const connection = new Connection({
    userName: 'the username',
    password: 'the password',
    server: 'the server',
    options: {
      database: 'the db name',
      encrypt: true,
      // Required to retrieve userId needed for Membership entity creation
      rowCollectionOnRequestCompletion: true
    }
  });
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
    // if you have connection issues, uncomment this to get more detailed info
    //console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
    // this will show any errors when connecting to the SQL database or with the SQL statements
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    verifyMembershipUser(email, function(err, wasUpdated) {
      if (err) return callback(err); // this will return a 500
      callback(null, wasUpdated);
    });
  });
  function findUserId(email, callback) {
    const findUserIdFromEmail =
      'SELECT UserProfile.UserId FROM ' +
      'UserProfile INNER JOIN webpages_Membership ' +
      'ON UserProfile.UserId = webpages_Membership.UserId ' +
      'WHERE UserName = @Username';
    const findUserIdFromEmailQuery = new Request(findUserIdFromEmail, function (err, rowCount, rows) {
      if (err || rowCount < 1) return callback(err);
      const userId = rows[0][0].value;
      callback(null, userId);
    });
    findUserIdFromEmailQuery.addParameter('Username', TYPES.VarChar, email);
    connection.execSql(findUserIdFromEmailQuery);
  }
  function verifyMembershipUser(email, callback) {
    findUserId(email, function (err, userId) {
      if (err || !userId) return callback(err);
      // isConfirmed field is the email verification flag
      const updateMembership =
        'UPDATE webpages_Membership SET isConfirmed = \'true\' ' +
        'WHERE isConfirmed = \'false\' AND UserId = @UserId';
      const updateMembershipQuery = new Request(updateMembership, function (err, rowCount) {
        return callback(err, rowCount > 0);
      });
      updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('UserId', TYPES.VarChar, userId);
      connection.execSql(updateMembershipQuery);
    });
  }
}

MongoDB

function verify (email, callback) {
  const MongoClient = require('mongodb@3.1.4').MongoClient;
  const client = new MongoClient('mongodb://user:pass@mymongoserver.com');
  client.connect(function (err) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    const db = client.db('db-name');
    const users = db.collection('users');
    const query = { email: email, email_verified: false };
    users.update(query, { $set: { email_verified: true } }, function (err, count) {
      client.close();
      if (err) return callback(err);
      callback(null, count > 0);
    });
  });
}

MySQL

function verify(email, callback) {
  const mysql = require('mysql');
  const connection = mysql({
    host: 'localhost',
    user: 'me',
    password: 'secret',
    database: 'mydb'
  });
  connection.connect();
  const query = 'UPDATE users SET email_Verified = true WHERE email_Verified = false AND email = ?';
  connection.query(query, [ email ], function(err, results) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    callback(null, results.length > 0);
  });
}

PostgreSQL

function verify (email, callback) {
  //this example uses the "pg" library
  //more info here: https://github.com/brianc/node-postgres
  const postgres = require('pg');
  const conString = 'postgres://user:pass@localhost/mydb';
  postgres.connect(conString, function (err, client, done) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    const query = 'UPDATE users SET email_Verified = true WHERE email_Verified = false AND email = $1';
    client.query(query, [email], function (err, result) {
      // NOTE: always call `done()` here to close
      // the connection to the database
      done();
      return callback(err, result && result.rowCount > 0);
    });
  });
}

SQL Server

function verify (email, callback) {
  //this example uses the "tedious" library
  //more info here: http://pekim.github.io/tedious/index.html
  const sqlserver = require('tedious@1.11.0');
  const Connection = sqlserver.Connection;
  const Request = sqlserver.Request;
  const TYPES = sqlserver.TYPES;
  const connection = new Connection({
    userName:  'test',
    password:  'test',
    server:    'localhost',
    options:  {
      database: 'mydb'
    }
  });
  const query = 'UPDATE dbo.Users SET Email_Verified = true WHERE Email_Verified = false AND Email = @Email';
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
    console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  }).on('infoMessage', function(text) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    const request = new Request(query, function (err, rows) {
      if (err) return callback(err);
      callback(null, rows > 0);
    });
    request.addParameter('Email', TYPES.VarChar, email);
    connection.execSql(request);
  });
}

Windows Azure SQL Database

function verify (email, callback) {
  //this example uses the "tedious" library
  //more info here: http://pekim.github.io/tedious/index.html
  var Connection = require('tedious@1.11.0').Connection;
  var Request = require('tedious@1.11.0').Request;
  var TYPES = require('tedious@1.11.0').TYPES;
  var connection = new Connection({
    userName:  'your-user@your-server-id.database.windows.net',
    password:  'the-password',
    server:    'your-server-id.database.windows.net',
    options:  {
      database: 'mydb',
      encrypt:  true
    }
  });
  var query =
    'UPDATE Users SET Email_Verified=\'TRUE\' ' +
    'WHERE Email_Verified=\'FALSE\' AND Email=@Email';
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
    // Uncomment next line in order to enable debugging messages
    // console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  }).on('infoMessage', function(text) {
    // Uncomment next line in order to enable information messages
    // console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) { return callback(err); }
    var request = new Request(query, function (err, rows) {
      if (err) { return callback(err); }
      console.log('rows: ' + rows);
      callback(null, rows > 0);
    });
    request.addParameter('Email', TYPES.VarChar, email);
    connection.execSql(request);
  });
}

Learn more