Accessing Meteor application as another user - authentication

Question

I've recently updated some parts of the code and want to check if they play well with production database, which has different data sets for different users. But I can only access the application as my own user.
How to see the Meteor application through the eyes of another user?

Answer 1

UPDATE: The best way to do this is to use a method
Server side
Meteor.methods({
logmein: function(user_id_to_log_in_as) {
this.setUserId(user_id_to_log_in_as);
}
}):
Client side
Meteor.call("logmein", "<some user_id of who you want to be>");
This is kept simple for sake of clarity, feel free to place in your own security measures.

Answer 2

I wrote a blog post about it. But here are the details:
On the server. Add a method that only an admin can call that would change the currently logged user programatically:
Meteor.methods(
"switchUser": (username) ->
user = Meteor.users.findOne("username": username)
if user
idUser = user["_id"]
this.setUserId(idUser)
return idUser
)
On the client. Call this method with the desired username and override the user on the client as well:
Meteor.call("switchUser", "usernameNew", function(idUser) {
Meteor.userId = function() { return idUser;};
});
Refresh client to undo.
This may not be a very elegant solution but it does the trick.

Answer 3

Slightly updated answer from the accepted to log the client in as new user as well as on the server.
logmein: function(user_id_to_log_in_as) {
if (Meteor.isServer) {
this.setUserId(user_id_to_log_in_as);
}
if (Meteor.isClient) {
Meteor.connection.setUserId(user_id_to_log_in_as);
}
},
More info here: http://docs.meteor.com/api/methods.html#DDPCommon-MethodInvocation-setUserId