React/JavaScript: Starter SPA Code Sample

Demo

Overview

This JavaScript code sample demonstrates how to build a Single-Page Application (SPA) using React. This React code sample builds the API server using the React Router 6 library.

Visit the "React/JavaScript Code Samples: SPA Security in Action" section of the "Auth0 Developer Resources" to explore how you can secure React applications written in JavaScript by implementing endpoint protection and authorization with Auth0.

Why Use Auth0?

Auth0 is a flexible drop-in solution to add authentication and authorization services to your applications. Your team and organization can avoid the cost, time, and risk that come with building your own solution to authenticate and authorize users. We offer tons of guidance and SDKs for you to get started and integrate Auth0 into your stack easily.

Set Up and Run the React Project

Install the project dependencies:

npm install

The starter React project offers a functional application that consumes data from an external API to hydrate the user interface. For simplicity and convenience, the starter project simulates the external API locally using json-server.

However, you can also integrate this starter project with any of the "Hello World" API code samples, which are available in multiple backend frameworks and programming languages.

The compatible API server runs on http://localhost:6060 by default. As such, to connect your React application with that API server, create a .env file under the root project directory and populate it with the following environment variables:

REACT_APP_API_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:6060

Next, execute the following command to run the JSON server API:

npm run api

Finally, open another terminal tab and execute this command to run your React application:

npm start

Visit http://localhost:4040/ to access the starter application.

In the starter project, all the starter React application routes are public. However, you can use Auth0 to get an ID token to hydrate the user profile information present on the /profile page with information from a real user. With Auth0, you can also get an access token to make a secure call to an external API to hydrate the messages present in the /protected and /admin pages.

Useful resources

Explains step by steps how to do the integration of Auth0 in a react app.

React Authentication By Example: Using React Router 6

Explains in details how to create the OKTA app to connect to Auth0.