docs: Add "How to Set Up React User Authentication" Post #316
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jscyo
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Jan 28, 2025
| * **Auth0** offers an easy-to-implement, scalable solution for user authentication, making it ideal for applications that need social logins and advanced features. | ||
| * **Firebase** simplifies authentication with email/password, phone, and social media providers, making it a great choice for projects already using other Firebase services. | ||
| * **SuperTokens** is perfect if you want the flexibility of self-hosting your authentication system, or using the cloud option, while still using pre-built solutions for login, session management, and secure token handling. | ||
| 2. **Custom Authentication Solutions**: For projects that require full control over the authentication process, building a custom solution with **Node.js** and **Express** might be the best route. This approach allows you to design the authentication flow exactly as you need, manage sensitive user data securely, and integrate custom business logic. However, it comes with a higher development and maintenance cost compared to using a service like SuperTokens. |
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Mention that most developers would be better suited using a service and focus their development efforts on the core business logic
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| title: How to Set Up React User Authentication | ||
| date: "2025-01-28" | ||
| description: "User authentication forms the backbone of security in modern web applications, especially within the **React** ecosystem. Ensuring that only authenticated users can access specific parts of your application is crucial for safeguarding data integrity and access control." |
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Markdown does not work in the frontmatter
Suggested change
| description: "User authentication forms the backbone of security in modern web applications, especially within the **React** ecosystem. Ensuring that only authenticated users can access specific parts of your application is crucial for safeguarding data integrity and access control." | |
| description: "User authentication forms the backbone of security in modern web applications, especially within the React ecosystem. Ensuring that only authenticated users can access specific parts of your application is crucial for safeguarding data integrity and access control." |
| 1. **Create a New React App Using Create React App** | ||
| To build a secure user login, start by setting up a new React application. Using Create React App, you can quickly initialize the project: | ||
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| | bash npx create-react-app my-auth-app cd my-auth-app npm install npm start | |
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use proper markdown code blocks. They will have language specific highlighting and are easier to read.
Suggested change
| | bashnpx create-react-app my-auth-app cd my-auth-app npm install npm start | | |
| ```bash | |
| �npx create-react-app my-auth-app cd my-auth-app npm install npm start |
| | bash npx create-react-app my-auth-app cd my-auth-app npm install npm start | | ||
| | :---- | | ||
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| This command creates the basic app structure where you’ll integrate authentication with Auth0, JWTs, and Express. By setting up on `localhost:3000`, you can easily test authentication routes and calls to a backend running locally. |
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Give a better description of what this command is doing : creating a demo react app, installing the dependencies and starting it up
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| This command creates the basic app structure where you’ll integrate authentication with Auth0, JWTs, and Express. By setting up on `localhost:3000`, you can easily test authentication routes and calls to a backend running locally. | ||
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| 2. **Structure of the Application** |
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Why is this being done here? We have just setup and application, there are no components/contexts/apis/uitl functions created yet. This is a little confusing and unnecessary
| 1. **Using** `react-router` **to Create Private Routes** | ||
| Set up route paths with `BrowserRouter` and create protected routes using constants for easier management. | ||
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| | javascript import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Redirect } from 'react-router-dom'; const PrivateRoute \= ({ component: Component, ...rest }) \=\> ( \<Route {...rest} render={(props) \=\> isAuthenticated ? \<Component {...props} /\> : \<Redirect to="/login" /\> } /\> ); | |
| 1. **Clearing Tokens and Updating State** | ||
| Add a logout button that clears tokens and resets authentication state in the context. | ||
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| | javascript const handleLogout \= () \=\> { localStorage.removeItem('token'); setIsAuthenticated(false); }; | |
| 2. **Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up SuperTokens in a React App** | ||
| To get started, check out this comprehensive [tutorial on building a login screen with React and Bootstrap](https://supertokens.com/blog/building-a-login-screen-with-react-and-bootstrap). Begin by installing the SuperTokens SDK for seamless integration: | ||
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| | bash npm install supertokens-auth-react supertokens-node | |
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| Next, configure SuperTokens in your app’s main file, such as `App.js`. This setup ensures SuperTokens handles authentication details, including secure session management, which is particularly useful for [setting up social and email-password logins in ReactJS](https://supertokens.com/blog/how-to-set-up-social-and-email-password-login-with-reactjs). | ||
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| | javascript import { init } from 'supertokens-auth-react'; const appInfo \= { appName: "MyApp", apiDomain: "http://localhost:5000", websiteDomain: "http://localhost:3000", }; init({ appInfo }); | |
| 1. **Creating User Accounts and Handling Sign-In** | ||
| SuperTokens makes it easy to implement user registration and login within your React app. By adding a simple login component, you can authenticate users securely with minimal code: | ||
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| | javascript import { signIn } from 'supertokens-auth-react'; import React, { useState } from 'react'; const LoginForm \= () \=\> { const \[email, setEmail\] \= useState(''); const \[password, setPassword\] \= useState(''); const handleLogin \= async () \=\> { const response \= await signIn({ email, password }); if (response.status \=== "OK") { console.log("Login successful"); } else { console.log("Login failed"); } }; return ( \<form onSubmit={(e) \=\> { e.preventDefault(); handleLogin(); }}\> \<input type="email" value={email} onChange={(e) \=\> setEmail(e.target.value)} placeholder="Email" /\> \<input type="password" value={password} onChange={(e) \=\> setPassword(e.target.value)} placeholder="Password" /\> \<button type="submit"\>Login\</button\> \</form\> ); }; | |
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