React Native SDK

How to integrate with a React Native app

This guide provides instructions to integrate authgear with a react native app. Supported platforms include:

• Android

• iOS

Setup Application in Authgear

Signup for an account in https://portal.authgearapps.com/ and create a project. Or you can use your self-deployed Authgear.

After that, we will need to create an application in Authgear.

Portal

Create an application

1. Go to "Applications".

2. Click "Add Application" in the top right corner

3. Input the name of your application, this is for reference only

4. Defining a custom scheme that the users will be redirected back to your app after they have authenticated with Authgear. Add the URI to "Redirect URIs". (e.g. com.myapp://host/path).

5. Click "Save" and keep the client id. You can also obtain the client id from the list later.

If you want to validate JWT access token in your server, select Issue JWT as access token. If you will forward incoming requests to Authgear Resolver Endpoint for authentication, leave this unchecked. See comparisons in Backend Integration.

authgear.yaml (self-deployed)

oauth:
  clients:
    - name: your_app_name
      client_id: a_random_generated_string
      redirect_uris:
        - "com.myapp://host/path"
      grant_types:
        - authorization_code
        - refresh_token
      response_types:
        - code
        - none

Create a React Native app

Follow the documentation of React Native to see how you can create a new React Native app.

npx react-native init myapp
cd myapp

Install the SDK

yarn add --exact @authgear/react-native
(cd ios && pod install)

Platform Integration

To finish the integration, setup the app to handle the redirectURI specified in the application. This part requires platform specific integration.

Android

Add the following activity entry to the AndroidManifest.xml of your app. The intent system would dispatch the redirect URI to OAuthRedirectActivity and the sdk would handle the rest.

<!-- Your application configuration. Omitted here for brevity -->
<application>
  <!-- Other activities or entries -->

  <!-- Add the following activity -->
  <activity android:name="com.authgear.reactnative.OAuthRedirectActivity"
            android:launchMode="singleTask">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
                <!-- Configure data to be the exact redirect URI your app uses. -->
                <!-- Here, we are using com.authgear.example://host/path as configured in authgear.yaml. -->
                <!-- NOTE: The redirectURI supplied in AuthorizeOptions *has* to match as well -->
                <data android:scheme="com.myapp.example"
                    android:host="host"
                    android:pathPrefix="/path"/>
            </intent-filter>
  </activity>
</application>

iOS

Declare URL Handling in Info.plist

In Info.plist, add the matching redirect URI.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
      <!-- Other entries -->
      <key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
      <array>
              <dict>
                      <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
                      <string>Editor</string>
                      <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
                      <array>
                              <string>com.myapp.example</string>
                      </array>
              </dict>
      </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Insert the SDK Integration Code

In AppDelegate.m, add the following code snippet.

// Other imports...
#import <authgear-react-native/AGAuthgearReactNative.h>

// Other methods...

// For handling deeplink
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)app
            openURL:(NSURL *)url
            options:
                (NSDictionary<UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey, id> *)options {
    return [AGAuthgearReactNative application:app openURL:url options:options];
}

// For handling deeplink
// deprecated, for supporting older devices (iOS < 9.0)
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
              openURL:(NSURL *)url
    sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication
          annotation:(id)annotation {
    return [AGAuthgearReactNative application:application
                                      openURL:url
                            sourceApplication:sourceApplication
                                  annotation:annotation];
}

// for handling universal link
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
    continueUserActivity:(NSUserActivity *)userActivity
      restorationHandler:
          (void (^)(NSArray<id<UIUserActivityRestoring>> *_Nullable))
              restorationHandler {
    return [AGAuthgearReactNative application:application
                        continueUserActivity:userActivity
                          restorationHandler:restorationHandler];
}

Try authenticate

Add this code to your react native app. This snippet configures authgear to connect to an authgear server deployed at endpoint with the client you have just setup via clientID, opens a browser for authorization, and then upon success redirects to the app via the redirectURI specified.

import React, { useCallback } from "react";
import { View, Button } from "react-native";
import authgear from "@authgear/react-native";

function LoginScreen() {
  const onPress = useCallback(() => {
    // Normally you should only configure once when the app launches.
    authgear
      .configure({
        clientID: "a_random_generated_string",
        endpoint: "http://<myapp>.authgearapps.com",
      })
      .then(() => {
        authgear
          .authorize({
            redirectURI: "com.myapp.example://host/path",
          })
          .then(({ userInfo }) => {
            console.log(userInfo);
          });
      });
  }, []);

  return (
    <View>
      <Button onPress={onPress} title="Authenticate" />
    </View>
  );
}

Using the Access Token in HTTP Requests

To include the access token to the HTTP requests to your application server, there are two ways to achieve this.

Option 1: Using fetch function provided by Authgear SDK

Authgear SDK provides the fetch function for you to call your application server. The fetch function will include the Authorization header in your application request, and handle refresh access token automatically. authgear.fetch implement fetch.

authgear
    .fetch("YOUR_SERVER_URL")
    .then(response => response.json())
    .then(data => console.log(data));

Option 2: Add the access token to your HTTP

You can access the access token through authgear.accessToken. Call refreshAccessTokenIfNeeded every time before using the access token, the function will check and make the network call only if the access token has expired. Include the access token into the Authorization header of your application request.

authgear
    .refreshAccessTokenIfNeeded()
    .then(() => {
        // access token is ready to use
        // accessToken can be string or undefined
        // it will be empty if user is not logged in or session is invalid
        const accessToken = authgear.accessToken;

        // include Authorization header in your application request
        const headers = {
            Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`
        };
    });

Logout

To log out the user from the current app session, you need to invoke thelogoutfunction.

authgear
  .logout()
  .then(() => {
    // logout successfully
  });

Next steps

To protect your application server from unauthorized access. You will need to integrate your backend with Authgear.

Backend Integration