Sign in users in React SPA by using native authentication - Microsoft identity platform

2025-03-04

Applies to: White circle with a gray X symbol. Workforce tenants Green circle with a white check mark symbol. External tenants (learn more)

In this tutorial, you learn how to sign in users into a React single-page app (SPA) by using native authentication.

In this tutorial, you:

Update the React app to sign in users with username(email) and password.
Test sign-in flow.

Prerequisites

Complete the steps in Tutorial: Setup CORS Proxy server to manage CORS headers for native authentication.

Define types of calls the app makes to the native authentication API

During the sign-in flow, the app makes multiple calls to the native authentication API such as starting a sign-in request, selecting an authentication method, and requesting for security tokens.

To define these calls, open the scr/client/RequestTypes.ts file, then append following code snippet:

   export interface TokenRequestType {
        continuation_token: string;
        client_id: string;
        grant_type: string;
        scope: string;
        password?: string;
        oob?: string;
        challenge_type?: string;
    }

    // Sign in
    export interface TokenSignInType {
        continuation_token: string;
        grant_type: string;
        password?: string;
        oob?: string;
    }

    export interface ChallengeRequest {
        client_id: string;
        challenge_type: string;
        continuation_token: string;
    }

    export interface SignInStartRequest {
        client_id: string;
        challenge_type: string;
        username: string;
    }

    export interface SignInTokenRequest {
        client_id: string;
        grant_type: string;
        continuation_token: string;
        scope: string;
        challenge_type?: string;
        password?: string;
        oob?: string;
    }

Define the type of responses app receives from the native authentication API

To define the type of responses the app can receive from the native authentication API for the sign-in operation, open the src/client/ResponseTypes.ts file, then append the following code snippet:

    export interface TokenResponseType {
        token_type: string;
        scope: string;
        expires_in: number;
        access_token: string;
        refresh_token: string;
        id_token: string;
    }

In this section, you add code that processes sign-in flow requests. Examples of these requests are start a sign-in flow, select an authentication method or request a security token.

To do so, create a file called src/client/SignInService.ts, then add the following code snippet:

    import { CLIENT_ID, ENV } from "../config";
    import { postRequest } from "./RequestClient";
    import { ChallengeRequest, SignInStartRequest, TokenRequestType, TokenSignInType } from "./RequestTypes";
    import { TokenResponseType } from "./ResponseTypes";

    export const signInStart = async ({ username }: { username: string }) => {
        const payloadExt: SignInStartRequest = {
            username,
            client_id: CLIENT_ID,
            challenge_type: "password oob redirect",
        };

        return await postRequest(ENV.urlOauthInit, payloadExt);
    };

    export const signInChallenge = async ({ continuation_token }: { continuation_token: string }) => {
        const payloadExt: ChallengeRequest = {
            continuation_token,
            client_id: CLIENT_ID,
            challenge_type: "password oob redirect",
        };

        return await postRequest(ENV.urlOauthChallenge, payloadExt);
    };

    export const signInTokenRequest = async (request: TokenSignInType): Promise<TokenResponseType> => {
        const payloadExt: TokenRequestType = {
            ...request,
            client_id: CLIENT_ID,
            challenge_type: "password oob redirect",
            scope: "openid offline_access",
        };

        if (request.grant_type === "password") {
            payloadExt.password = request.password;
        }

        if (request.grant_type === "oob") {
            payloadExt.oob = request.oob;
        }

        return await postRequest(ENV.urlOauthToken, payloadExt);
    };

The challenge_type property shows the authentication methods that the client app supports. This app signs is using email with password, so the challenge type value is password oob redirect. Read more about challenge types.

Create UI components

During sign-in flow, this app collects the user's credentials, username (email), and password, to sign in the user. After the user successfully signs in, the app displays the user's details.

Create a folder called /pages/signin in the src folder.

To create, display and submit the sign-in form, create a file src/pages/signin/SignIn.tsx, then add the following code:

    import React, { useState } from "react";
    import { Link as LinkTo, useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";
    import { signInStart, signInChallenge, signInTokenRequest } from "../../client/SignInService";
    import { ErrorResponseType } from "../../client/ResponseTypes";

    export const SignIn: React.FC = () => {
      const [email, setEmail] = useState<string>("");
      const [password, setPassword] = useState<string>("");
      const [error, setError] = useState<string>("");
      const [isLoading, setIsloading] = useState<boolean>(false);

      const navigate = useNavigate();
      const validateEmail = (email: string): boolean => {
        const re = /^[^\s@]+@[^\s@]+\.[^\s@]+$/;
        return re.test(String(email).toLowerCase());
      };

      const handleSubmit = async (e: React.FormEvent<HTMLFormElement>) => {
        e.preventDefault();
        if (!validateEmail(email)) {
          setError("Invalid email format");
          return;
        }
        setError("");
        setIsloading(true);
        try {
          const res1 = await signInStart({
            username: email,
          });
          const res2 = await signInChallenge({ continuation_token: res1.continuation_token });
          const res3 = await signInTokenRequest({
            continuation_token: res2.continuation_token,
            grant_type: "password",
            password: password,
          });
          navigate("/user", { state: res3 });
        } catch (err) {
          setError("An error has occured " + (err as ErrorResponseType).error_description);
        } finally {
          setIsloading(false);
        }
      };

      return (
        <div className="login-form">
          <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
            <h2>Login</h2>
            <div className="form-group">
              <label>Email:</label>
              <input type="email" value={email} onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)} required />
            </div>
            <div className="form-group">
              <label>Password:</label>
              <input type="password" value={password} onChange={(e) => setPassword(e.target.value)} required />
            </div>
            {error && <div className="error">{error}</div>}
            {isLoading && <div className="warning">Sending request...</div>}
            <button type="submit" disabled={isLoading}>Login</button>
          </form>
        </div>
      );
    };

To display the user's details after a successful sign-in:

Create a file called client/Utils.ts, then add the following code snippet:

    export function parseJwt(token: string) {
        var base64Url = token.split(".")[1];
        var base64 = base64Url.replace(/-/g, "+").replace(/_/g, "/");
        var jsonPayload = decodeURIComponent(
            window
            .atob(base64)
            .split("")
            .map(function (c) {
                return "%" + ("00" + c.charCodeAt(0).toString(16)).slice(-2);
            })
            .join("")
        );
        return JSON.parse(jsonPayload);
    }

Create a folder called user in the src/pages folder.

Create a file called src/pages/user/UserInfo.tsx, then add the following code snippet:

// User.tsx
import React from "react";
import { useLocation } from "react-router-dom";
import { parseJwt } from "../../client/Utils";

export const UserInfo: React.FC = () => {
  const { state } = useLocation();
  const decodedToken = parseJwt(state.access_token);
  const { given_name, scp, family_name, unique_name: email } = decodedToken;

  console.log(decodedToken);
  const familyName = family_name;
  const givenName = given_name;
  const tokenExpireTime = state.expires_in;
  const scopes = state.scope;

  return (
    <div className="user-info">
      <h2>User Information</h2>
      <div className="info-group">
        <label>Given Name:</label>
        <span>{givenName}</span>
      </div>
      <div className="info-group">
        <label>Family Name:</label>
        <span>{familyName}</span>
      </div>
      <div className="info-group">
        <label>Email:</label>
        <span>{email}</span>
      </div>
      <div className="info-group">
        <label>Token Expire Time:</label>
        <span>{tokenExpireTime}</span>
      </div>
      <div className="info-group">
        <label>Scopes:</label>
        <span>{scopes}</span>
      </div>
      <div className="info-group">
        <label>Token payload:</label>
        <span><pre>{JSON.stringify(decodedToken, null, 2)}</pre></span>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

Add app routes

Open the src/AppRoutes.tsx file, then replace its contents with the following code:

import { Route, Routes } from "react-router-dom";
import { SignIn } from "./pages/SignIn/SignIn";
import { UserInfo } from "./pages/User/UserInfo";
import { SignUp } from "./pages/SignUp/SignUp";
import { SignUpChallenge } from "./pages/SignUp/SignUpChallenge";
import { SignUpCompleted } from "./pages/SignUp/SignUpCompleted";
//For password reset
//import { ResetPassword } from "./pages/ResetAccount/ResetPassword";

export const AppRoutes = () => {
  return (
    <Routes>
      <Route path="/" element={<SignUp />} />
      <Route path="/signin" element={<SignIn />} />
      <Route path="/user" element={<UserInfo />} />
      <Route path="/signup" element={<SignUp />} />
      <Route path="/signup/challenge" element={<SignUpChallenge />} />
      <Route path="/signup/completed" element={<SignUpCompleted />} />
      //For password reset
      //<Route path="/reset" element={<ResetPassword />} />
    </Routes>
  );
};

Run and test your app

Use the steps in Run and test you app to run your app, but this time, test the sign in flow by using the user account that you signed up earlier.

Next step

Tutorial: Reset password in a React app for users in an external tenant using native authentication

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Tutorial: Sign in users into a React single-page app by using native authentication (preview)