Novu's React SDK for building custom inbox notification experiences.

Novu provides the @novu/react a React library that helps to add a fully functioning Inbox to your web application in minutes. Let's do a quick recap on how you can easily use it in your application. Refer to the Novu documentation for the complete React quickstart guide.

Installation

• Install @novu/react npm package in your react app

npm install @novu/react

Try it instantly (Keyless mode)

The keyless mode is designed for local testing and experimentation, letting you use Novu's Inbox component without any configuration. Just import and render.

import React from 'react';
import { Inbox } from '@novu/react';

export function App() {
  return <Inbox />;
}

Connect to real subscribers

To connect the Inbox component with your Novu environment and real subscribers, set the applicationIdentifier and subscriberId

import { Inbox } from '@novu/react';

function Novu() {
  return (
    <Inbox
      subscriber='SUBSCRIBER_ID'
      applicationIdentifier='APPLICATION_IDENTIFIER'
    />
  );
}

Use your own backend and socket URL

By default, Novu's hosted services for API and socket are used. If you want, you can override them and configure your own.

import { Inbox } from '@novu/react';

function Novu() {
  return (
    <Inbox
      backendUrl='YOUR_BACKEND_URL'
      socketUrl='YOUR_SOCKET_URL'
      subscriber='SUBSCRIBER_ID'
      applicationIdentifier='APPLICATION_IDENTIFIER'
    />
  );
}

Controlled Inbox

You can use the open prop to manage the Inbox popover open state.

import { Inbox } from '@novu/react';

function Novu() {
  const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);

  return (
    <div>
      <Inbox
        subscriber='SUBSCRIBER_ID'
        applicationIdentifier='APPLICATION_IDENTIFIER'
        open={isOpen}
      />
      <button onClick={() => setOpen(true)}>Open Inbox</button>
      <button onClick={() => setOpen(false)}>Close Inbox</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Localization

You can pass the localization prop to the Inbox component to change the language of the Inbox.

import { Inbox } from '@novu/react';

function Novu() {
  return (
    <Inbox
      subscriber='SUBSCRIBER_ID'
      applicationIdentifier='APPLICATION_IDENTIFIER'
      localization={{
        'inbox.status.archived': 'Archived',
        'inbox.status.unread': 'Unread',
        'inbox.status.options.archived': 'Archived',
        'inbox.status.options.unread': 'Unread',
        'inbox.status.options.unreadRead': 'Unread/Read',
        'inbox.status.unreadRead': 'Unread/Read',
        'inbox.title': 'Inbox',
        'notifications.emptyNotice': 'No notifications',
        locale: 'en-US',
      }}
    />
  );
}

HMAC Encryption

When Novu's user adds the Inbox component to their application, developers need to provide a subscriber prop with the value of their customer's subscriberId, along with an application identifier that serves as a public key for API communication.

A malicious actor can access the user feed by accessing the API and passing another subscriberId using the public application identifier.

HMAC encryption will make sure that a subscriberId is encrypted using the secret API key, and those will prevent malicious actors from impersonating users.

Enabling HMAC Encryption

In order to enable Hash-Based Message Authentication Codes, you need to visit the admin panel In-App settings page and enable HMAC encryption for your environment.

Subscriber HMAC

1. Generate an HMAC encrypted subscriberId on your backend:

import { createHmac } from 'crypto';

const subscriberHash = createHmac('sha256', process.env.NOVU_API_KEY).update(subscriberId).digest('hex');

2. Pass the created HMAC to your client side application:

<Inbox
  subscriber={'SUBSCRIBER_ID_PLAIN_VALUE'}
  subscriberHash={'SUBSCRIBER_ID_HASH_VALUE'}
  applicationIdentifier={'APPLICATION_IDENTIFIER'}
/>

Note: If HMAC encryption is active in In-App provider settings and subscriberHash along with subscriberId is not provided, then Inbox will not load

Context HMAC (Optional)

If you're using the context prop to pass additional data (e.g., tenant information, environment, etc.), you should also generate a contextHash to prevent context tampering:

1. Generate an HMAC for the context on your backend:

import { createHmac } from 'crypto';
import { canonicalize } from '@tufjs/canonical-json';

const context = { tenant: 'acme', app: 'dashboard' };
const contextHash = createHmac('sha256', process.env.NOVU_API_KEY)
  .update(canonicalize(context))
  .digest('hex');

2. Pass both the context and contextHash to the component:

<Inbox
  subscriber={'SUBSCRIBER_ID_PLAIN_VALUE'}
  subscriberHash={'SUBSCRIBER_ID_HASH_VALUE'}
  context={{ tenant: 'acme', app: 'dashboard' }}
  contextHash={'CONTEXT_HASH_VALUE'}
  applicationIdentifier={'APPLICATION_IDENTIFIER'}
/>

Note: When HMAC encryption is enabled and context is provided, the contextHash is required. The hash is order-independent, so {a:1, b:2} produces the same hash as {b:2, a:1}.