React OAuth Flow

Note to users

As the popularity of this module has grown (modestly) I've realized that all OAuth implementations doesn't look the same. I was naive in thinking that there was some form of standardized simple way of doing this.

So just a heads up – during the winter and spring I will take another look at this and hopefully come up with a library that has some sensible defaults together with the ability to customize it to your needs.

As of now I recommend anyone who wants some customization to run your own fork. And if you have any ideas fow how to rewrite the api of this module – please reach out!

– Adam Bergman

• What is react-oauth-flow
• Installation
• Requirements
• Usage
  • <OauthSender />
  • <OauthReceiver />
  • createOauthFlow
• License
• Contributors

What is react-oauth-flow

react-oauth-flow is a small library to simplify the use of OAuth2 authentication inside your react applications.

It will bring you a simple component to generate the necessary link to send your users to the correct location and it will give you a component to perform the authorization process once the user is back on your site.

Installation

npm install react-oauth-flow
yarn add react-oauth-flow

There is also a umd-build available for usage directly inside a browser, via https://unkpg.com/react-oauth-flow/dist/react-oauth-flow.umd.min.js.

<script src="https://unkpg.com/react-oauth-flow/dist/react-oauth-flow.umd.min.js"></script>
<script>
  // The umd-build exports a global variable ReactOauthFlow
  const { createOauthFlow, OauthSender, OauthReceiver } = ReactOauthFlow;
</script>

Requirements

react-oauth-flow requires fetch to be available on the window-object. In modern browsers it's there by default. But for older browsers you might need to provide it yourself as a polyfill.

If you are using create-react-app it's already included as a polyfill. Otherwise I recommend whatwg-fetch (which create-react-app also uses).

Usage

react-oauth-flow exports three functions:

• OauthSender
• OauthReceiver
• createOauthFlow

<OauthSender />

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { OauthSender } from 'react-oauth-flow';

export default class SendToDropbox extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <OauthSender
        authorizeUrl="https://www.dropbox.com/oauth2/authorize"
        clientId={process.env.CLIENT_ID}
        redirectUri="https://www.yourapp.com/auth/dropbox"
        state={{ from: '/settings' }}
        render={({ url }) => <a href={url}>Connect to Dropbox</a>}
      />
    );
  }
}

Use <OauthSender /> to send your users to the correct endpoints at your OAuth2 service.

Props

Prop	Type	Required	Default	Description
authorizeUrl	string	yes	-	The full url to the authorize endpoint, provided by the service
clientId	string	yes	-	Your client id from the service provider (remember to keep it secret!)
redirectUri	string	yes	-	The URL where the provider should redirect your users back
state	object	no	-	Additional state to get back from the service provider (read more below)
args	object	no	-	Additional args to send to service provider, e.g. scope. Will be serialized by qs

Render

<OauthSender /> can be used in three ways, either by a render-prop, children-function or component-prop. In either way they will recieve the generated url as a prop/arg.

const RenderProp = props => (
  <OauthSender {...props} render={({ url }) => <a href={url}>Connect</a>} />
);

const ChildrenFunction = props => (
  <OauthSender {...props}>{({ url }) => <a href={url}>Connect</a>}</OauthSender>
);

const Link = ({ url }) => <a href={url}>Connect</a>;
const ComponentProp = props => <OauthSender {...props} component={Link} />;

State

You can pass some state along with the auth process. This state will be sent back by the OAuth-provider once the process is done. This state can for example then be used to redirect the user back to where they started the auth process.

<OauthReceiver />

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { OauthReceiver } from 'react-oauth-flow';

export default class ReceiveFromDropbox extends Component {
  handleSuccess = async (accessToken, { response, state }) => {
    console.log('Successfully authorized');
    await setProfileFromDropbox(accessToken);
    await redirect(state.from);
  };

  handleError = error => {
    console.error('An error occurred');
    console.error(error.message);
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <OauthReceiver
        tokenUrl="https://api.dropbox.com/oauth2/token"
        clientId={process.env.CLIENT_ID}
        clientSecret={process.env.CLIENT_SECRET}
        redirectUri="https://www.yourapp.com/auth/dropbox"
        onAuthSuccess={this.handleSuccess}
        onAuthError={this.handleError}
        render={({ processing, state, error }) => (
          <div>
            {processing && <p>Authorizing now...</p>}
            {error && (
              <p className="error">An error occurred: {error.message}</p>
            )}
          </div>
        )}
      />
    );
  }
}

Use <OauthReceiver /> to handle authorization when the user is being redirected from the OAuth2-provider.

Props

Prop	Type	Required	Default	Description
tokenUrl	string	yes	-	The full url to the token endpoint, provided by the service
clientId	string	yes	-	Your client id from the service provider (remember to keep it secret!)
clientSecret	string	yes	-	Your client secret from the service provider (remember to keep it secret!)
redirectUri	string	yes	-	The URL where the provider has redirected your user (used to verify auth)
args	object	no	-	Args will be attatched to the request to the token endpoint. Will be serialized by qz
location	{ search: string }	no	-	Used to extract info from querystring (read more below)
querystring	string	no	-	Used to extract info from querystring (read more below)
tokenFetchArgs	object	no	{}	Used to fetch the token endpoint (read more below)
tokenFn	func	no	null	Used to bypass default fetch function to fetch the token (read more below)

Events

• onAuthSuccess(accessToken, result)

Arg	Type	Description
accessToken	string	Access token recieved from OAuth2 provider
result	object
result.response	object	The full response from the call to the token-endpoint
result.state	object	The state recieved from provider, if it was provided earlier

• onAuthError(error)

Arg	Type	Description
error	Error	Error with message as description of what happened

Render

<OauthReceiver /> can be used in three ways, either by a render-prop, children-function or component-prop. Either way they will recieve three props/args:

• processing: boolean: True if authorization is in progress
• state: object: The state received from provider (might be null)
• error: Error: An error object if an error occurred

const RenderProp = props => (
  <OauthReceiver
    {...props}
    render={({ processing, state, error }) => (
      <div>
        {processing && <p>Authorization in progress</p>}
        {state && <p>Will redirect you to {state.from}</p>}
        {error && <p className="error">Error: {error.message}</p>}
      </div>
    )}
  />
);

const ChildrenFunction = props => (
  <OauthReceiver {...props}>
    {({ processing, state, error }) => (
      <div>
        {processing && <p>Authorization in progress</p>}
        {state && <p>Will redirect you to {state.from}</p>}
        {error && <p className="error">Error: {error.message}</p>}
      </div>
    )}
  </OauthReceiver>
);

const View = ({ processing, state, error }) => (
  <div>
    {processing && <p>Authorization in progress</p>}
    {state && <p>Will redirect you to {state.from}</p>}
    {error && <p className="error">Error: {error.message}</p>}
  </div>
);
const ComponentProp = props => <OauthReceiver {...props} component={View} />;

location and querystring

The props location and querystring actually do the same thing but both can be ommitted. But what they do is still important. When the OAuth2-provider redirects your users back to your app they do so with a querystring attatched to the call. <OauthReceiver /> parses this string to extract information that it needs to request an access token.

location is especially useful if you're using react-router. Because it provides you with a location-prop with all the information that <OauthReceiver /> needs.

querystring can be used if you want some control over the process, but basically it's window.location.search. So if it is not provided <OauthReceiver /> will fetch the information from window.location.search.

tokenFetchArgs

The prop tokenFetchArgs can be used to change how the token is received from the service. For example, the token service for Facebook requires a GET request but the token service for Dropbox requires a POST request. You can change tokenFetchArgs to make this necessary change.

The following are the default fetch args used to fetch the token but they can be merged and overriden with the tokenFetchArgs:

{ method: 'GET', headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }}

tokenFn

The prop tokenFn can be used to change how the token is fetched and received from the service. It's a way to bypass the default fetch all together and use your own. For example, if your access-token comes in the headers instead of the response body you will have to use your own fetch function to get those. Or perhaps you already have a custom built fetch function that communicates with your backend and you want to make use of it.

Your function will receive the url from the OauthReceiver, it takes the tokenUrl and builds it up with all the other needed parameters so you don't have to. It will also receive the tokenFetchArgs parameter just in case you need it. if you don't, just ignore it.

createOauthFlow

import { createOauthFlow } from 'react-oauth-flow';

const { Sender, Receiver } = createOauthFlow({
  authorizeUrl: 'https://www.dropbox.com/oauth2/authorize',
  tokenUrl: 'https://api.dropbox.com/oauth2/token',
  clientId: process.env.CLIENT_ID,
  clientSecret: process.env.CLIENT_SECRET,
  redirectUri: 'https://www.yourapp.com/auth/dropbox',
});

export { Sender, Receiver };

createOauthFlow is a shorthand to create instances of both <OauthSender /> and <OauthReceiver /> with equal settings to keep things DRY.

These instances can then be used as described above. All arguments can also be overridden when you use the created components.

Args

Arg	Type	Required	Default	Description
options	object	yes	-	Options object
options.authorizeUrl	string	yes	-	The full url to the authorize endpoint, provided by the service
options.tokenUrl	string	yes	-	The full url to the token endpoint, provided by the service
options.clientId	string	yes	-	Your client id from the service provider (remember to keep it secret!)
options.clientSecret	string	yes	-	Your client secret from the service provider (remember to keep it secret!)
options.redirectUri	string	yes	-	The URL where the provider should redirect your users back

License

MIT

Contributors

Adam Bergman 💻 📖	Jamie Wright 💻 📖