Setting up social authentication in Next.js

Tutorial 4 of 5

1. Introduction

Goal of the Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will learn how to set up social authentication in a Next.js application. Particularly, we will cover how to integrate Google and Facebook login into the app.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:
- Understand how social authentication works
- Set up Google and Facebook apps for authentication
- Implement Google and Facebook login in a Next.js application

Prerequisites

Before we start, you should have a basic knowledge of:
- JavaScript (ES6)
- React and Next.js
- Node.js and Express.js

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Concept Explanation

Social authentication leverages existing login information from a social networking service like Google or Facebook. Instead of signing up with a new username and password, users can authenticate using their social network credentials.

Setting up Google and Facebook apps

Before integrating social authentication in Next.js, you need to create apps on Google and Facebook to get the required credentials.

For Google, follow these steps:
1. Visit the Google Developer Console
2. Create a new project
3. Enable the Google+ API
4. Create credentials (OAuth client ID and secret)

For Facebook, follow these steps:
1. Visit the Facebook Developer Console
2. Create a new app
3. Under the "Add a Product" section, choose "Facebook Login"
4. Set up the app and get the App ID and secret

Integrating Google and Facebook Login

We'll use the next-auth library to integrate social login in our Next.js app.

3. Code Examples

Google Authentication

// Import NextAuth and Providers
import NextAuth from 'next-auth'
import Providers from 'next-auth/providers'

export default NextAuth({
  providers: [
    Providers.Google({
      clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_ID,
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_SECRET
    })
  ]
})

Facebook Authentication

providers: [
    Providers.Facebook({
      clientId: process.env.FACEBOOK_ID,
      clientSecret: process.env.FACEBOOK_SECRET
    }),
]

The clientId and clientSecret are the credentials you obtained from Google and Facebook.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we learned how to set up social authentication in a Next.js application. We created apps on Google and Facebook, obtained the required credentials, and used the next-auth library to integrate social login in our Next.js app.

5. Practice Exercises

  1. Try adding LinkedIn authentication to your Next.js app.
  2. Add a user profile page that displays the user's information after successful login.
  3. Implement logout functionality.

Remember, the best way to learn is by doing. Keep practicing and exploring more features of next-auth. Happy coding!