React/Single sign-on (SSO)/

How to configure GitHub SSO in Django Rest Framework with React?

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Single Sign On (SSO) gives your users convenient but secure access to all their web applications with a single set of credentials. This guide explains how we can configure Github SSO(Social Login) in the Django Rest Framework backend with React.

Django (Django rest Framework):

Django REST framework (DRF) is a powerful and flexible toolkit for building Web APIs.Its main benefit is that it makes serialization much easier. Django REST framework is based on Django's class-based views, so it's an excellent option if you're familiar with Django. To know more about relative links click here

Node.js :

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform, back-end JavaScript runtime environment that runs on a JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript code outside a web browser. and NPM is a package manager for Node. js packages. The NPM program is installed on your computer when you install Node.js. To know more about relative links click here

React:

ReactJS is much easier to learn and use. ReactJS is a free and open-source front-end JavaScript library for building user interfaces based on UI components. to create interactive applications for mobile, web, and other platforms. To know more about relative links click here

Single sign-on(SSO):

Single sign-on (SSO) is a time-saving and highly secure user authentication process. SSO lets users access multiple applications with a single account and sign out instantly with one click.

How it Works:

Flow Diagram:

Steps:

Step 1: Create a Github client Id and client Secret

Check out this tutorial, to create a client Id and client secret.

Step 2: Set up a React project

Install Nodejs

Before we create React App we need to install node.js.

if you already installed node.js please ignore this step 2 and go to step 3

Step 3: Create a React-app

After installing Node.js open the terminal or command prompt and create the React app with the following commands

1npx create-react-app frontend

A sample screenshot of React app files is shown below.

Screenshot1

Step 4: Configure the React project to establish a connection with Github.

After creating the React app then install the react-login-github commands

1npm i react-login-github

In src/App.js, add the following code.

import './App.css';
import LoginGithub from 'react-login-github';
import github from "./github.png"

function App() {
  function onSuccess(e) {
    fetch("http://127.0.0.1:8000/github/", {
      method: "POST",
      body: JSON.stringify({ "auth_token": e.code }),
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'
      }
    })
      .then((res) => res.json())
      .then((response) => {
        document.getElementById("email_id").innerText = response['email']
        document.getElementById("auth_token").innerText = response['tokens']
      })

  }
  function onFailure(e) {
    alert(e)
  }
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <LoginGithub
        clientId="Github client Id"
        onSuccess={onSuccess}
        onFailure={onFailure}

        className="github">
        <img src={github} alt="Sign in with github" className='github-image' ></img>
        <h2 className='github-name'>Sign in with github</h2>

      </LoginGithub>
      <div className="show-user_info">
        <div >
          <label className="info">Email Id:</label>
          <label id='email_id'></label>
        </div>
        <div >
          <label className="info">Auth token:</label>
          <label id="auth_token"></label>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

The sample code for the App.js file can be found in the following GitHub URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/App.js at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

You can run your app via CLI with the following command and view it in your browser:
1npm start

Step 5: Set up a Django project.

1: Install Python

Python3.6 or above is needed to create a Django project, therefore please install python and proceed to the next step.

2: Install Django:

Install the Django framework using the following command.

1pip install django

3: Create a Django Project:

Create a Django project using the below command.

1django-admin startproject backend

Step 6: Create a Django App:

After creating the Django project, then create the Django app

1python manage.py startapp accounts

A sample screenshot of Django project files is shown below.

Screenshot2

Step 7: Configure the Django project to establish a connection with Github.

1: Install djangorestframework:

In this blog, we are using the Django Rest framework python library to create APIs, therefore the please install same to proceed further.

1pip install djangorestframework

2: Install django-cors-headers:

django-cors-headers library needs to establish a connection from the React frontend to Django API, hence please install the same using the below command.

1pip install django-cors-headers

In backend/settings.py, add the following piece of code:

1GITHUB_CLIENT_ID = <CLIENT_ID>
2SOCIAL_SECRET = <SOCIAL_SECRET>

1CORS_ORIGIN_ALLOW_ALL = True

1MIDDLEWARE = [
2    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
3    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
4    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
5    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
6    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
7    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
8    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
9    'corsheaders.middleware.CorsMiddleware',                          # <<< newly added line
10]
11

Sample code for the /accounts/settings.py can be found in the following GitHub URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/settings.py at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

In your project, go to your /accounts directory and create a file called serializers.py.

In /accounts/serializers.py, add the following code.

1from django.conf import settings
2from rest_framework import serializers
3from library.sociallib import github
4from library.register.register import register_social_user
5from rest_framework.exceptions import*
6
7class GithubSocialAuthSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
8    """Handles serialization of facebook related data"""
9    auth_token = serializers.CharField()
10
11    def validate_auth_token(self, auth_token):
12        user_data = github.Github.validate(auth_token)
13
14        try:
15            email = user_data['email']
16            provider = 'github'
17        except:
18            raise serializers.ValidationError(
19                'The token  is invalid or expired. Please login again.'
20            )
21        return register_social_user(
22            provider=provider, user_id=None, email=email, name=None)
23

Sample code for the /accounts/serializers.py can be found in the following GitHub URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/serializers.py at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

Update the accounts/views.py file with the following code.

1from rest_framework.generics import GenericAPIView
2from .serializers import*
3from rest_framework.response import Response
4from rest_framework import status
5from rest_framework.permissions import AllowAny
6from rest_framework.decorators import permission_classes
7
8
9@permission_classes((AllowAny, ))
10class GithubSocialAuthView(GenericAPIView):
11
12    serializer_class = GithubSocialAuthSerializer
13
14    def post(self, request):
15        """
16        POST with "auth_token"
17        Send an access token as from github to get user information
18        """
19
20        serializer = self.serializer_class(data=request.data)
21        serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=True)
22        data = ((serializer.validated_data)['auth_token'])
23        return Response(data, status=status.HTTP_200_OK)
24
25

Sample code for the /accounts/views.py can be found in the following Github URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/views.py at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

Create the sociallib and register directory in the following hierarchy.
library → socaillib
library → register.
After that, please create a github.py the file inside the sociallib directory

In library/sociallib/github.py, add the following snippet.

1from django.conf import settings
2import urllib.request as requests
3import json
4
5class Github:
6    """
7    Github class to fetch the user info and return it
8    """
9    @staticmethod
10    def validate(auth_token):
11        """
12        validate method Queries the github url to fetch the user info
13        """
14        try:
15            url = 'https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token?client_id=%s&client_secret=%s&code=%s' % (
16                settings.CLIENT_ID, settings.CLIENT_SCERET, auth_token)
17            req = requests.urlopen(url)
18            reply = req.read()
19            access_token = (reply.decode('utf-8').split('&'))[0][13:]
20            headers = {
21                "Authorization": f"token {access_token}",
22                "content-type": "application/json",
23                "Access-Control-Expose-Headers": "ETag, Link, X-GitHub-OTP, X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset, X-OAuth-Scopes, X-Accepted-OAuth-Scopes, X-Poll-Interval"
24            }
25            user_info_url = "https://api.github.com/user/emails"
26            req = requests.Request(user_info_url, headers=headers)
27            response = requests.urlopen(req)
28            response = response.read()
29            data = response.decode('utf-8')
30            user_info = json.loads(data)
31            return user_info[0]
32        except:
33            return "The token is either invalid or has expired"

Sample code for the library/sociallib/github.py file can be found in the following Github URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/github.py at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

Navigate to the library/register directory and create a file called register.py

Screenshot4

In library/register/register.py, add the following code.

1from rest_framework.authtoken.models import Token
2
3from accounts.models import User
4from django.conf import settings
5from rest_framework.exceptions import AuthenticationFailed
6
7
8def register_social_user(provider, user_id, email, name):
9    filtered_user_by_email = User.objects.filter(email=email)
10
11    if filtered_user_by_email.exists():
12        if provider == filtered_user_by_email[0].auth_provider:
13            new_user = User.objects.get(email=email)
14
15            registered_user = User.objects.get(email=email)
16            registered_user.check_password(settings.SOCIAL_SECRET)
17
18            Token.objects.filter(user=registered_user).delete()
19            Token.objects.create(user=registered_user)
20            new_token = list(Token.objects.filter(
21                user_id=registered_user).values("key"))
22
23            return {
24                'username': registered_user.username,
25                'email': registered_user.email,
26                'tokens': str(new_token[0]['key'])}
27
28        else:
29            raise AuthenticationFailed(
30                detail='Please continue your login using ' + filtered_user_by_email[0].auth_provider)
31
32    else:
33        user = {
34            'username': email, 'email': email,
35            'password': settings.SOCIAL_SECRET
36        }
37        user = User.objects.create_user(**user)
38        user.is_active = True
39        user.auth_provider = provider
40        user.save()
41        new_user = User.objects.get(email=email)
42        new_user.check_password(settings.SOCIAL_SECRET)
43        Token.objects.create(user=new_user)
44        new_token = list(Token.objects.filter(user_id=new_user).values("key"))
45        return {
46            'email': new_user.email,
47            'username': new_user.username,
48            'tokens': str(new_token[0]['key']),
49        }
50
51

Sample code for the library/register/register.py file can be found in the following Github URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/register.py at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

Add the accounts/urls.py file with the following content.

1from django.urls import path
2from .views import*
3
4urlpatterns = [
5    path('github/', GithubSocialAuthView.as_view()),
6]

An example screenshot of the Django project is shown below.

Screenshot6

Sample code for the accounts/urls.py file can be found in the following Github URL.

github_sso_django_reactjs_example/urls.py at master · episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

Finally, Run the Django application using the following command.

1 python manage.py runserver

A Sample Github repo, with all the required configurations, is given below.

GitHub - episyche/github_sso_django_reactjs_example

Result:

After finishing all the steps mentioned above, please go to the web browser, and try to access the React application (i.e http://localhost:3000). An example output screenshot is given below.

sso results