This code sample demonstrates how to implement authentication with Auth0 by Okta in a Next.js web application using the Auth0 Nextjs SDK and Next.js Pages Router. This JavaScript code sample implements the following security tasks:
- How to add user login, sign-up, and logout to Next.js Applications.
- How to create a middleware to protect Next.js application routes.
- How to make API calls from Next.js to request data from a protected API.
- How to get user profile information to personalize an Next.js user interface.
Next.js Code Sample Specs
This code sample uses the following tools:
- Next.js
v13.1.5 - Auth0 Next.js SDK
v3.0.0
The Next.js project dependency installations were tested with npm v8.5.5. Running the Next.js application was tested using Node.js v16.15.0.
Quick Auth0 Set Up
First and foremost, if you haven't already, sign up for an Auth0 account to connect your web application with the Auth0 Identity Platform.
Next, you'll connect your web application with Auth0. You'll need to create an application registration in the Auth0 Dashboard and get three configuration values: the Auth0 Domain, the Auth0 Client ID, and the Auth0 Client Secret. You'll also need to define an Auth0 Audience value within your project to practice making secure calls to an external API.
Get the Auth0 domain and client ID
-
Open the Applications section of the Auth0 Dashboard.
-
Click on the Create Application button and fill out the form with the following values:
Hello World Client
- Click on the Create button.
An Auth0 Application page loads up.
As such, click on the "Settings" tab of your Auth0 Application page, locate the "Application URIs" section, and fill in the following values:
http://localhost:4040/api/auth/callback
http://localhost:4040
Scroll down and click the "Save Changes" button.
Next, locate the "Basic Information" section.
When you enter a value in the input fields present on this page, any code snippet that uses such value updates to reflect it. Using the input fields makes it easy to copy and paste code as you follow along.
As such, enter the "Domain" and "Client ID" values in the following fields to set up your web application in the next section:
Set Up and Run the Next.js Code Sample
Start by cloning the project into your local machine:
git clone https://github.com/auth0-developer-hub/web-app_nextjs_javascript_hello-world_pages-router.git
Make the project directory your current working directory:
cd web-app_nextjs_javascript_hello-world_pages-router
Then, check out the basic-authentication branch, which holds all the Next.js code related to implementing basic user authentication with Auth0:
git checkout basic-authentication
Next, install the Next.js project dependencies:
npm install
You'll also need a session secret to sign the session ID cookie of your web application. Use the following command to generate a random secret key:
node -e "console.log(crypto.randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"
Copy the long-string output from the terminal and paste it into the following input box:
Create a .env file under the root project directory:
touch .env
Populate the .env with the following environment variables:
AUTH0_SECRET=KEY-VALUEAUTH0_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4040AUTH0_ISSUER_BASE_URL=https://AUTH0-DOMAINAUTH0_CLIENT_ID=AUTH0-CLIENT-IDAUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET=AUTH0-CLIENT-SECRET
The AUTH0_BASE_URL is the base URL of your application.
Get the Auth0 Client Secret
Head back to the "Settings" tab of your Auth0 application page in the Auth0 Dashboard to get the value for AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET.
Locate the "Client Secret" field, copy its value, and paste it as the AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET environment value in the .env file.
Run the Next.js Code Sample
Execute the following command to run the Next.js web application:
npm run dev
This Next.js code sample offers a functional application with views and services to hydrate the user interface. It is important to notice that the service implemented in the basic-authentication branch simulates the external API by placing the responses directly on the code.
Later, you'll integrate this Next.js web application with a real API server using any of the "Auth0 Hello World" API code samples with the backend technology of your choice.
Use the Next.js Sample Application
You can now visit http://localhost:4040/ to access the application.
When you click on the "Log In" button, Next.js takes you to the Auth0 Universal Login page. Your users can log in to your application through a page hosted by Auth0, which provides them with a secure, standards-based login experience that you can customize with your own branding and various authentication methods, such as logging in with a username and password or with a social provider like Facebook or Google.
Once you log in, visit the protected "Profile" page to see all the user profile information that Auth0 securely shares with your application using ID tokens:
You can test that the protected Next.js routes require users to log in before accessing them. Click on the "Log Out" button and try to access the Profile page, Protected page, or the Admin page:
If everything is working as expected, Next.js redirects you to log in with Auth0.
Connect the Next.js Code Sample with an API Server
Before you can practice requesting protected resources from an external API server using access tokens, you need to set up and configure an API with Auth0. You can pair this Next.js code sample with any of our "Hello World" API server code samples.
Set up a Hello World API server
Pick an API code sample in your preferred backend framework and language from the list below and follow the instructions on the code sample page to set it up. Once you complete the sample API server set up, please return to this Next.js code sample page to learn how to integrate that API server with your Next.js web application.
While setting up the API server code sample, you created an Auth0 Audience value. Store that value in the following field so that you can use it throughout the instructions present in this section easily:
Set up the Next.js client application
If you haven't cloned the repository already, start by cloning the Next.js project into your local machine:
git clone https://github.com/auth0-developer-hub/web-app_nextjs_javascript_hello-world_pages-router.git
Make the project directory your current working directory:
cd web-app_nextjs_javascript_hello-world_pages-router
Then, check out the basic-authentication-with-api-integration branch:
git checkout basic-authentication-with-api-integration
Next, install the Next.js project dependencies:
npm install
Now, either create or update the .env file under the Next.js project directory with the following:
AUTH0_SECRET=KEY-VALUEAUTH0_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4040AUTH0_ISSUER_BASE_URL=https://AUTH0-DOMAINAUTH0_CLIENT_ID=AUTH0-CLIENT-IDAUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET=AUTH0-CLIENT-SECRETAPI_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:6060AUTH0_AUDIENCE=AUTH0-AUDIENCE
This time around, you include the API_SERVER_URL and AUTH0_AUDIENCE values.
The API_SERVER_URL is the URL where your sample API server listens for requests. In production, you'll change this value to the URL of your live server.
The AUTH0_AUDIENCE is an identifier that represents the compatible Hello World API you just registered in your Auth0 tenant. This identifier is also known as the Auth0 audience. Your Next.js web application must provide this value to the Auth0 authorization server in order to get a valid access token to make authenticated requests to the compatible external API.
If you haven't started the Next.js web application yet, execute this command to run it:
npm run dev
Now your Next.js is all set up to request protected data from the "Hello World" API server of your choice. Ensure that your API server is running and visit the Protected page or the Admin page of your Next.js web application:
Verify that these pages are displaying the relevant messages from the API.
This basic-authentication-with-api-integration branch of the code sample repository demonstrates "how to request protected data from an API using access tokens in Next.js".