netlify-identity-widget

v2.0.3

Published

5 days ago

Netlify Identity widget for easy integration

Netlify Identity Widget

A component used to authenticate with Netlify's Identity service.

What is Netlify Identity

Netlify's Identity service is a plug-and-play microservice for handling site functionalities like signups, logins, password recovery, user metadata, and roles. You can use it from single page apps instead of rolling your own, and integrate with any service that understands JSON Web Tokens (JWTs).

Learn more about this service from this blog post.

Usage

Simply include the widget on your site, and things like invites, confirmation codes, etc, will start working.

You can add controls for the widget with HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A static website</title>

    <!-- include the widget -->
    <script
      type="text/javascript"
      src="https://identity.netlify.com/v1/netlify-identity-widget.js"
    ></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- Add a menu:
   Log in / Sign up - when the user is not logged in
   Username / Log out - when the user is logged in
  -->
    <div data-netlify-identity-menu></div>

    <!-- Add a simpler button:
    Simple button that will open the modal.
  -->
    <div data-netlify-identity-button>Login with Netlify Identity</div>
  </body>
</html>

The widget will automatically attach itself to the window object as window.netlifyIdentity.

You can use this global object like this:

// Open the modal
netlifyIdentity.open();
netlifyIdentity.open("login"); // open the modal to the login tab
netlifyIdentity.open("signup"); // open the modal to the signup tab
netlifyIdentity.open("signup", { full_name: "Jane Doe" }); // pass metadata to pre-fill signup fields

// Get the current user:
// Available after on('init') is invoked
const user = netlifyIdentity.currentUser();

// Bind to events
netlifyIdentity.on("init", (user) => console.log("init", user));
netlifyIdentity.on("login", (user) => console.log("login", user));
netlifyIdentity.on("logout", () => console.log("Logged out"));
netlifyIdentity.on("error", (err) => console.error("Error", err));
netlifyIdentity.on("open", () => console.log("Widget opened"));
netlifyIdentity.on("close", () => console.log("Widget closed"));

// Unbind from events
netlifyIdentity.off("login"); // to unbind all registered handlers
netlifyIdentity.off("login", handler); // to unbind a single handler

// Close the modal
netlifyIdentity.close();

// Log out the user
netlifyIdentity.logout();

// Refresh the user's JWT
// Call in on('login') handler to ensure token refreshed after it expires (1hr)
// Note: this method returns a promise.
netlifyIdentity.refresh().then((jwt) => console.log(jwt));

// Change language
netlifyIdentity.setLocale("en");

JWT refresh tokens

The access token (JWT) issued by Netlify Identity expires after 1 hour. After expiry, the widget automatically uses the refresh token to obtain a new access token when you call netlifyIdentity.refresh().

To keep the token fresh, call refresh() before making authenticated requests:

netlifyIdentity.on("login", async (user) => {
  // Get a fresh JWT for API calls
  const jwt = await netlifyIdentity.refresh();
  // Use jwt in Authorization header for your functions/API
  fetch("/.netlify/functions/my-function", {
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${jwt}` }
  });
});

You do not need to call .refresh() on every request — only when the token may have expired (i.e. more than 1 hour since the last login or refresh). The method returns a promise that resolves with the new JWT string.

A note on script tag versioning

The v1 in the above URL is not pinned to the major version of the module API, and will only reflect breaking changes in the markup API.

Module API

Netlify Identity Widget also has a module API:

yarn add netlify-identity-widget

Import or require as usual:

const netlifyIdentity = require("netlify-identity-widget");

netlifyIdentity.init({
  container: "#netlify-modal", // defaults to document.body
  locale: "en" // defaults to 'en'
});

netlifyIdentity.open(); // open the modal
netlifyIdentity.open("login"); // open the modal to the login tab
netlifyIdentity.open("signup"); // open the modal to the signup tab
netlifyIdentity.open("signup", { full_name: "Jane Doe" }); // pass metadata to pre-fill signup fields

netlifyIdentity.on("init", (user) => console.log("init", user));
netlifyIdentity.on("login", (user) => console.log("login", user));
netlifyIdentity.on("logout", () => console.log("Logged out"));
netlifyIdentity.on("error", (err) => console.error("Error", err));
netlifyIdentity.on("open", () => console.log("Widget opened"));
netlifyIdentity.on("close", () => console.log("Widget closed"));

// Unbind from events
netlifyIdentity.off("login"); // to unbind all registered handlers
netlifyIdentity.off("login", handler); // to unbind a single handler

// Close the modal
netlifyIdentity.close();

// Log out the user
netlifyIdentity.logout();

// refresh the user's JWT
// Note: this method returns a promise.
netlifyIdentity.refresh().then((jwt) => console.log(jwt));

// Change language
netlifyIdentity.setLocale("en");

// Access the underlying GoTrue JS client.
// Note that doing things directly through the GoTrue client brings a risk of getting out of
// sync between your state and the widget’s state.
netlifyIdentity.gotrue;

`netlifyIdentity.init([opts])`

You can pass an optional opts object to configure the widget when using the module API. Options include:

{
  container: '#some-query-selector'; // container to attach to
  APIUrl: 'https://www.example.com/.netlify/functions/identity'; // Absolute url to endpoint.  ONLY USE IN SPECIAL CASES!
  logo: true; // set to false to hide the Netlify logo in the modal
  namePlaceholder: 'some-placeholder-for-Name'; // custom placeholder for name input form
  locale: 'en'; // language code for translations - available: en, fr, es, pt, hu, pl, cs, sk, de, it, ar, zhCN, nl, sv, sw, ru - default to en
  cookieDomain: '.example.com'; // domain for the nf_jwt cookie, enabling cross-subdomain auth

Generally avoid setting the APIUrl. You should only set this when your app is served from a domain that differs from where the identity endpoint is served. This is common for Cordova or Electron apps where you host from localhost or a file.

cookieDomain: By default, the nf_jwt cookie is scoped to the exact hostname that set it. If your app spans multiple subdomains (e.g. app.example.com and api.example.com), set cookieDomain to the parent domain with a leading dot (e.g. ".example.com") so the cookie is included in requests to all subdomains. Only set this if you need cross-subdomain auth.

Localhost

When using the widget on localhost, it will prompt for your Netlify SiteURL the first time it is opened. Entering the siteURL populates the browser's localStorage.

This allows the widget to know which instance of Netlify Identity it should communicate with zero configuration.

E.g. If your Netlify site is served from the olddvdscreensaver.com domain name, enter the following when prompted by the widget when in development mode:

https://olddvdscreensaver.com

List of Alternatives

| Library | UI provided | Notes | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | | gotrue-js | No | Low-level JS client for GoTrue, Netlify's underlying Identity service | | netlify-identity-widget | Yes (overlay) | This library — drop-in modal widget, no framework needed | |

You can also see an example of wrapping netlify-identity-widget in a React Hook here: https://github.com/sw-yx/netlify-fauna-todo/blob/main/src/hooks/useNetlifyIdentity.js

Browser Support

This widget supports all modern browsers. The browserslist query used is:

defaults, not IE 11

This covers the latest two versions of all major browsers, any browser with >0.5% global usage, and Firefox ESR. Internet Explorer is not supported.

FAQ

TypeScript Typings are maintained by @nkprince007 (see PR): npm install @types/netlify-identity-widget and then import * as NetlifyIdentityWidget from "netlify-identity-widget" (or import NetlifyIdentityWidget from "netlify-identity-widget" if you have --allowSyntheticDefaultImports on)
If you experience a 404 while testing the Netlify Identity Widget on a local environment, you can manually remove the netlifySiteURL from localStorage by doing the following in the console.

localStorage.removeItem("netlifySiteURL");

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