Since incorporating React.js into my web development projects, I have been impressed by its user-friendly interface and versatility. An essential aspect of any web application is the ability to create dynamic and engaging user experiences, and React.js excels in this area. In this article, you will learn how to utilize GitHub as an authentication provider while creating a React.js login page.
Setting up the Project
Before we start building our login page, let’s make sure we have all the necessary tools installed. First, we need to have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on our machine. If you don’t have them installed, you can download and install them from the official Node.js website. Once we have Node.js and npm set up, we can use the create-react-app command-line tool to quickly create a new React.js project. Open your terminal and run the following command:
npx create-react-app login-page
This command will create a new directory called “login-page” and set up a basic React.js project structure for us. Once the project is created, navigate to the project directory by running the following command:
cd login-page
Now we are ready to start building our login page.
Creating the Login Component
In React.js, we can create reusable components to encapsulate the functionality and UI of different parts of our application. Let’s create a new file called “Login.js” inside the “src” directory, and add the following code:
import React from 'react';
class Login extends React.Component {
constructor() {
super();
this.state = {
username: '',
password: ''
};
}
handleInputChange = (event) => {
const { name, value } = event.target;
this.setState({ [name]: value });
}
handleSubmit = (event) => {
event.preventDefault();
// Handle login logic here
}
render() {
const { username, password } = this.state;
return (
Login Page
);
}
}
export default Login;
In the above code, we define a class-based component called Login. The component has a state object that holds the values of the username and password inputs. We use the handleInputChange method to update the state whenever the user types into the inputs. The handleSubmit method is called when the form is submitted, and it is where we will handle the login logic. The render method renders the login form with two input fields for the username and password, as well as a submit button.
Integrating with GitHub
Now that we have our login component, we need to integrate it with GitHub for authentication. GitHub provides a simple OAuth 2.0 authentication flow that we can use. We will need to create a GitHub OAuth App, which will give us a client ID and client secret that we can use to authenticate our application.
To create a new GitHub OAuth App, navigate to your GitHub account settings, and click on “Developer settings” in the sidebar. Then, click on “OAuth Apps”, and create a new app. Fill in the required information, such as the app name and homepage URL. For the authorization callback URL, enter the URL of your login page component (e.g., http://localhost:3000/login). Once you have created the app, you will be provided with a client ID and client secret.
To authenticate our application using GitHub, we will use the “react-github-login” package, which provides a pre-built login button component that handles the authentication flow for us. Install the package by running the following command inside your project directory:
npm install react-github-login
Once the package is installed, open your Login.js file and import the GitHubLogin component from the package. Add the following code inside your Login component’s render method:
import { GitHubLogin } from 'react-github-login';
render() {
// ...
return (
Login Page
);
}
In the above code, replace “YOUR_CLIENT_ID” with the client ID you obtained from your GitHub OAuth App. We also added two new methods, handleGitHubLoginSuccess and handleGitHubLoginFailure, which will be called when the GitHub login process succeeds or fails, respectively. You can implement these methods to handle the appropriate actions in your application.
Conclusion
In this article, we have explored how to create a login page in React.js using GitHub as the authentication provider. We started by setting up a new React.js project using create-react-app and then created a Login component with input fields for the username and password. We integrated the login component with GitHub’s OAuth 2.0 authentication flow using the react-github-login package and explained how to create a GitHub OAuth App to obtain the necessary credentials. With this knowledge, you can now build secure login functionality for your React.js applications and provide a seamless authentication experience for your users.
Happy coding!