www/apps/resources/app/commerce-modules/auth/auth-flows/page.mdx
export const metadata = {
title: Authentication Flows with the Auth Main Service,
}
In this guide, you'll learn how to use the methods of the Auth Module's service to implement authentication flows and reset a user's password.
<Note>This guide is only recommended for complex cases, where you may need to heavily customize the authentication flows and need to use the Auth Module's service methods directly. For most use cases, you should use the auth routes instead.
</Note>The register method of the Auth Module's service creates an auth identity that can be authenticated later.
For example:
const data = await authModuleService.register(
"emailpass",
// passed to auth provider
{
// pass data from request parameters, such as
url: "example.com",
headers: req.headers,
query: req.query,
// pass in the body the data necessary for the authentication provider
// to register the user, such as email and password
body: {
email: "[email protected]",
password: "supersecret",
},
protocol: req.protocol,
}
)
This method calls the register method of the provider specified in the first parameter. The method passes the second parameter as input for the provider, and returns its data.
Based on the returned data, you can determine if the registration was successful, and if any further action is required to complete the registration. This is explained further in the auth flows sections below.
To authenticate or log in a user, you use the authenticate method of the Auth Module's service. For example:
const data = await authModuleService.authenticate(
"emailpass",
// passed to auth provider
{
// pass data from request parameters, such as
url: "example.com",
headers: req.headers,
query: req.query,
// pass in the body the data necessary for the authentication provider
// to authenticate the user, such as email and password
body: {
email: "[email protected]",
password: "supersecret",
},
protocol: req.protocol,
}
)
This method calls the authenticate method of the provider specified in the first parameter. The method passes the second parameter as input for the provider, and returns its data.
Based on the returned data, you can determine if the authentication was successful, and if any further action is required to complete the authentication. This is explained further in the auth flows sections below.
The basic authentication flow requires first using the register method, then the authenticate method.
const {
success,
authIdentity,
error,
} = await authModuleService.register(
"emailpass",
// passed to auth provider
{
// pass data from request parameters, such as
url: "example.com",
headers: req.headers,
query: req.query,
// pass in the body the data necessary for the authentication provider
// to register the user, such as email and password
body: {
email: "[email protected]",
password: "supersecret",
},
protocol: req.protocol,
}
)
if (error) {
// registration failed
// TODO return an error
return
}
If the register method returns an error property, the registration failed, and you can return an error message to the user.
Otherwise, if the success property is true, the registration was successful, and the user's authentication details are available within the authIdentity object.
Check out the AuthIdentity reference for the received properties in authIdentity.
If an auth identity, such as a customer, tries to register with an email of another auth identity, the register method returns an error. This can happen either if another customer is using the same email, or an admin user has the same email.
There are two ways to handle this:
authenticate method validates that the email and password are correct. This allows admin users, for example, to authenticate as customers.// later (can be another route for login)
const {
success,
authIdentity,
location,
} = await authModuleService.authenticate(
"emailpass",
// passed to auth provider
{
// pass data from request parameters, such as
url: "example.com",
headers: req.headers,
query: req.query,
// pass in the body the data necessary for the authentication provider
// to authenticate the user, such as email and password
body: {
email: "[email protected]",
password: "supersecret",
},
protocol: req.protocol,
}
)
if (success && !location) {
// user is authenticated
}
If the authenticate method returns a success property that is true, and the location property is not set, the user is authenticated successfully. Their authentication details are available within the authIdentity object.
Otherwise, if the location property is set, you must follow the third-party service authentication flow to complete the authentication.
The third-party service authentication method requires using the authenticate method first:
const { success, authIdentity, location } = await authModuleService.authenticate(
"google",
// passed to auth provider
{
// pass data from request parameters, such as
url: "example.com",
headers: req.headers,
query: req.query,
body: req.body,
protocol: req.protocol,
}
)
if (location) {
// return the location for the frontend to redirect to
}
if (!success) {
// authentication failed
}
// authentication successful
If the authenticate method returns a location property, the authentication process requires the user to perform an action with a third-party service. So, you return the location to the frontend or client to redirect to that URL.
For example, when using the google provider, the location is the URL that the user must be redirected to in order to log in with their Google account.
The Google and GitHub providers allow you to override their callbackUrl option during authentication. This is useful when you redirect the user after authentication to a URL based on their actor type. For example, you redirect admin users and customers to different pages.
const {
success,
authIdentity,
location,
} = await authModuleService.authenticate(
"google",
// passed to auth provider
{
// ...
callback_url: "example.com",
}
)
Providers handling this authentication flow must implement the validateCallback method. It implements the logic to validate the authentication with the third-party service.
So, once the user performs the required action with the third-party service (for example, log in with Google), the frontend must redirect to an API route that uses the validateCallback method of the Auth Module's service.
The method calls the specified provider’s validateCallback method passing it the authentication details it received in the second parameter:
const { success, authIdentity } = await authModuleService.validateCallback(
"google",
// passed to auth provider
{
// request data, such as
url,
headers,
query,
body,
protocol,
}
)
if (success) {
// authentication succeeded
}
For providers like Google, the query object contains the query parameters from the original callback URL, such as the code and state parameters.
If the returned success property is true, the authentication with the third-party provider was successful.
To update a user's password or other authentication details, use the updateProvider method of the Auth Module's service. It calls the update method of the specified authentication provider.
For example:
const { success } = await authModuleService.updateProvider(
"emailpass",
// passed to the auth provider
{
entity_id: "[email protected]",
password: "supersecret",
}
)
if (success) {
// password reset successfully
}
The method accepts as a first parameter the ID of the provider, and as a second parameter the data necessary to reset the password.
In the example above, you use the emailpass provider, so you have to pass an object having entity_id and password properties.
If the returned success property is true, the password has been reset successfully.