Ensuring that only authenticated users have access to specific parts of an application is an important aspect of web development.
In this article, we will learn how to authenticate a Next.js application using Appwrite’s Okta OAuth2 provider.
The source code is also available on GitHub.
Prerequisites
To get the most out of this project, the following are required:
Basic understanding of React and Next.js
Docker installation
An Appwrite instance; check out this article on how to set up an instance
An Okta developer account (sign up here)
Getting Started
Create a Next.js project by running the command below in our terminal:
npx create-next-app okta-auth-app
Next, navigate into the project directory.
cd okta-auth-app
Then, run the command below to start the application:
npm run dev
Installing Appwrite
Appwrite is an open-source, end-to-end development platform that allows developers to build applications faster. Run the command below to install it:
npm i appwrite
Creating a New Appwrite Project
To create a new project, start up the Appwrite instance on your machine and navigate to the specified hostname and port http://localhost:80. Next, we need to log in to our account or create an account if we don’t have one.
On the console, click the Create Project button, give the project a name, and then click Create.
The project dashboard will appear on the console. Next, click on the Settings tab and copy the Project ID and API Endpoint.
Creating an Appwrite Instance in the Next.js App
Create a utils.js file in the root of the application and in there, paste the code below:
import { Appwrite } from "appwrite";
const appwrite = new Appwrite();
appwrite
.setEndpoint("http://localhost/v1")
.setProject("your-project-id");
export default appwrite;
We used the Appwrite Project ID and API Endpoint to set up the instance in our application.
Activating Okta Auth Method on Appwrite
Navigate to the Users menu, select the Settings tab, and enable the Okta OAuth2 provider:
Upon enabling the Okta provider, we will be required to fill in the App ID and App Secret. We will fill them in shortly.
Copy Appwrite’s callback URI below, as we will need it to configure the Okta authentication later.
Setting up an Okta Application
We need to set up a new integration on our Okta account. Go to the Applications page on the sidebar menu and click the Create App Integration button.
Select OIDC - OpenID Connect as the Sign-in method and Web Application as the Application type.
We need to configure the new app integration to work with Appwrite. Add the callback URI we copied earlier as one of the Sign-in redirect URIs, then save the application.
We also need to copy the Okta domain, Client ID, and Client Secret and paste them into our Appwrite configuration. Then, click Update.
Integrating Appwrite Authentication into Next.js
The application will contain two pages; a page to log in and another page to show logged-in user details.
Creating the login page Update the index.js file inside the pages folder with the snippet below:
import Head from "next/head";
import { Button, Center } from "@chakra-ui/react";
import appwrite from "utils";
export default function Home() {
const loginWithOkta = async () => {
try {
await appwrite.account.createOAuth2Session(
"okta",
"http://localhost:3000/user"
);
} catch (error) {
throw error;
}
};
return (
<Center>
<Button onClick={loginWithOkta}>Login with Okta</Button>
</Center>
);
}
Here, we did the following:
Imported the required dependencies
Created a
loginWithOktaasynchronous function that uses the Appwrite dk we initialized earlier to authenticate using Okta as the provider andhttp://localhost:3000/useras the URL it redirects to when the authentication is successful; we will create the user page in the next sectionPassed the
loginWithOktafunction to the button’sonClickhandler
Creating the User Page
Create a user.js file in the pages directory and update it with the snippet below:
import { Button, Center, Text, Heading, Stack } from "@chakra-ui/react";
import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import { useRouter } from "next/router";
import appwrite from "utils";
export default function User() {
const [loggedInUser, setLoggedInUser] = useState(null);
const router = useRouter();
const getLoggedInUser = async () => {
const data = (await appwrite) && appwrite.account.get();
data
.then((res) => setLoggedInUser(res))
.catch((err) => {
router.push("/");
console.log(err);
});
};
useEffect(() => {
getLoggedInUser();
}, []);
const logOut = async () => {
await appwrite.account.deleteSession("current");
alert("logout successful");
router.push("/");
};
return (
loggedInUser && (
<Center>
<Stack>
<Heading>You logged-in successfully</Heading>
<Text>User: {loggedInUser.name}</Text>
<p>Email: {loggedInUser.email}</p>
<Button onClick={logOut} mt={20}>
Logout
</Button>
</Stack>
</Center>
)
);
}
```javascript
Here, we did the following:
- Imported the required dependencies
- Created state and route variables to manage logged-in user sessions and route accordingly
- Created a `getLoggedInUser` function to get the logged-in user session and re-route to the login page if the session is empty and also called the function upon page load using the `useEffect` hook
- Created a `logOut` function to log the user out and passed it to the button’s `onClick` handler
With that, we have successfully authenticated a Next.js app application with Okta.
Conclusion
----------
This post discussed how to authenticate a Next.js application using Appwrite’s Okta OAuth2 provider.
Resources
---------
These resources might be helpful:
- [Set up Appwrite instance locally](https://dev.to/hackmamba/create-a-local-appwrite-instance-in-3-steps-19n9?utm_source=hackmamba&utm_medium=hackmamba)
- [Appwrite OAuth2 documentation](https://appwrite.io/docs/client/account?sdk=web-default#accountCreateOAuth2Session)
- [Appwrite - Getting Started for Web](https://appwrite.io/docs/getting-started-for-web)
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