Descope SDK for React
The Descope SDK for React provides convenient access to the Descope for an application written on top of React. You can read more on the Descope Website.
Requirements
Installing the SDK
Install the package with:
npm i --save @descope/react-sdk
Usage
Wrap your app with Auth Provider
import { AuthProvider } from '@descope/react-sdk';
const AppRoot = () => {
return (
<AuthProvider
projectId="my-project-id"
// If the Descope project manages the token response in cookies, a custom domain
// must be configured (e.g., https://auth.app.example.com)
// and should be set as the baseUrl property.
// baseUrl = "https://auth.app.example.com"
>
<App />
</AuthProvider>
);
};
Use Descope to render specific flow
You can use default flows or provide flow id directly to the Descope component
1. Default flows
import { SignInFlow } from '@descope/react-sdk'
const App = () => {
return (
{...}
<SignInFlow
onSuccess={(e) => console.log('Logged in!')}
onError={(e) => console.log('Could not logged in!')}
/>
)
}
2. Provide flow id
import { Descope } from '@descope/react-sdk'
const App = () => {
return (
{...}
<Descope
flowId="my-flow-id"
onSuccess={(e) => console.log('Logged in!')}
onError={(e) => console.log('Could not logged in')}
/>
)
}
Use the useDescope
, useSession
and useUser
hooks in your components in order to get authentication state, user details and utilities
This can be helpful to implement application-specific logic. Examples:
- Render different components if current session is authenticated
- Render user's content
- Logout button
import { useDescope, useSession, useUser } from '@descope/react-sdk';
import { useCallback } from 'react';
const App = () => {
const { isAuthenticated, isSessionLoading, sessionToken } = useSession();
const { user, isUserLoading } = useUser();
const sdk = useDescope();
if (isSessionLoading || isUserLoading) {
return <p>Loading...</p>;
}
const handleLogout = useCallback(() => {
sdk.logout();
}, [sdk]);
if (isAuthenticated) {
return (
<>
<p>Hello {user.name}</p>
<button onClick={handleLogout}>Logout</button>
</>
);
}
return <p>You are not logged in</p>;
};
Note: useSession
triggers a single request to the Descope backend to attempt to refresh the session. If you don't useSession
on your app, the session will not be refreshed automatically. If your app does not require useSession
, you can trigger the refresh manually by calling refresh
from useDescope
hook. Example:
const { refresh } = useDescope();
useEffect(() => {
refresh();
}, [refresh]);
For more SDK usage examples refer to docs
Session token server validation (pass session token to server API)
When developing a full-stack application, it is common to have private server API which requires a valid session token:
Note: Descope also provides server-side SDKs in various languages (NodeJS, Go, Python, etc). Descope's server SDKs have out-of-the-box session validation API that supports the options described bellow. To read more about session validation, Read this section in Descope documentation.
There are 2 ways to achieve that:
- Using
getSessionToken
to get the token, and pass it on the Authorization
Header (Recommended) - Passing
sessionTokenViaCookie
boolean prop to the AuthProvider
component (Use cautiously, session token may grow, especially in cases of using authorization, or adding custom claim)
1. Using getSessionToken
to get the token
An example for api function, and passing the token on the Authorization
header:
import { getSessionToken } from '@descope/react-sdk';
export const fetchData = async () => {
const sessionToken = getSessionToken();
const res = await fetch('/path/to/server/api', {
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${sessionToken}`,
},
});
};
An example for component that uses fetchData
function from above
import { fetchData } from 'path/to/api/file'
import { useCallback } from 'react'
const Component = () => {
const onClick = useCallback(() => {
fetchData()
},[])
return (
{...}
{
<button onClick={onClick}>Click Me</button>
}
)
}
2. Passing sessionTokenViaCookie
boolean prop to the AuthProvider
Passing sessionTokenViaCookie
prop to AuthProvider
component. Descope SDK will automatically store session token on the DS
cookie.
Note: Use this option if session token will stay small (less than 1k). Session token can grow, especially in cases of using authorization, or adding custom claims
Example:
import { AuthProvider } from '@descope/react-sdk';
const AppRoot = () => {
return (
<AuthProvider projectId="my-project-id" sessionTokenViaCookie>
<App />
</AuthProvider>
);
};
Now, whenever you call fetch
, the cookie will automatically be sent with the request. Descope backend SDKs also support extracting the token from the DS
cookie.
Note:
The session token cookie is set as a Secure
cookie. It will be sent only over HTTPS connections.
In addition, some browsers (e.g. Safari) may not store Secure
cookie if the hosted page is running on an HTTP protocol.
Helper Functions
You can also use the following functions to assist with various actions managing your JWT.
getSessionToken()
- Get current session token.
getRefreshToken()
- Get current refresh token.
refresh(token = getRefreshToken())
- Force a refresh on current session token using an existing valid refresh token.
isSessionTokenExpired(token = getSessionToken())
- Check whether the current session token is expired. Provide a session token if is not persisted (see token persistence).
isRefreshTokenExpired(token = getRefreshToken())
- Check whether the current refresh token is expired. Provide a refresh token if is not persisted (see token persistence).
getJwtRoles(token = getSessionToken(), tenant = '')
- Get current roles from an existing session token. Provide tenant id for specific tenant roles.
getJwtPermissions(token = getSessionToken(), tenant = '')
- Fet current permissions from an existing session token. Provide tenant id for specific tenant permissions.
Refresh token lifecycle
Descope SDK is automatically refreshes the session token when it is about to expire. This is done in the background using the refresh token, without any additional configuration.
If the Descope project settings are configured to manage tokens in cookies.
you must also configure a custom domain, and set it as the baseUrl
prop in the AuthProvider
component. See the above AuthProvider
usage for usage example.
Token Persistence
Descope stores two tokens: the session token and the refresh token.
- The refresh token is either stored in local storage or an
httpOnly
cookie. This is configurable in the Descope console. - The session token is stored in either local storage or a JS cookie. This behavior is configurable via the
sessionTokenViaCookie
prop in the AuthProvider
component.
However, for security reasons, you may choose not to store tokens in the browser. In this case, you can pass persistTokens={false}
to the AuthProvider
component. This prevents the SDK from storing the tokens in the browser.
Notes:
- You must configure the refresh token to be stored in an
httpOnly
cookie in the Descope console. Otherwise, the refresh token will not be stored, and when the page is refreshed, the user will be logged out. - You can still retrieve the session token using the
useSession
hook.
Last User Persistence
Descope stores the last user information in local storage. If you wish to disable this feature, you can pass storeLastAuthenticatedUser={false}
to the AuthProvider
component. Please note that some features related to the last authenticated user may not function as expected if this behavior is disabled. Local storage is being cleared when the user logs out, if you want the avoid clearing the local storage, you can pass keepLastAuthenticatedUserAfterLogout={true}
to the AuthProvider
component.
Widgets
Widgets are components that allow you to expose management features for tenant-based implementation. In certain scenarios, your customers may require the capability to perform managerial actions independently, alleviating the necessity to contact you. Widgets serve as a feature enabling you to delegate these capabilities to your customers in a modular manner.
Important Note:
- For the user to be able to use the widget, they need to be assigned the
Tenant Admin
Role.
User Management
The UserManagement
widget lets you embed a user table in your site to view and take action.
The widget lets you:
- Create a new user
- Edit an existing user
- Activate / disable an existing user
- Reset an existing user's password
- Remove an existing user's passkey
- Delete an existing user
Note:
- Custom fields also appear in the table.
Usage
import { UserManagement } from '@descope/react-sdk';
...
<UserManagement
widgetId="user-management-widget"
tenant="tenant-id"
/>
Example:
Manage Users
Role Management
The RoleManagement
widget lets you embed a role table in your site to view and take action.
The widget lets you:
- Create a new role
- Change an existing role's fields
- Delete an existing role
Note:
- The
Editable
field is determined by the user's access to the role - meaning that project-level roles are not editable by tenant level users. - You need to pre-define the permissions that the user can use, which are not editable in the widget.
Usage
import { RoleManagement } from '@descope/react-sdk';
...
<RoleManagement
widgetId="role-management-widget"
tenant="tenant-id"
/>
Example:
Manage Roles
Access Key Management
The AccessKeyManagement
widget lets you embed an access key table in your site to view and take action.
The widget lets you:
- Create a new access key
- Activate / deactivate an existing access key
- Delete an exising access key
Usage
import { AccessKeyManagement } from '@descope/react-sdk';
...
{
}
<AccessKeyManagement
widgetId="access-key-management-widget"
tenant="tenant-id"
/>
{
}
<AccessKeyManagement
widgetId="user-access-key-management-widget"
tenant="tenant-id"
/>
Example:
Manage Access Keys
Audit Management
The AuditManagement
widget lets you embed an audit table in your site.
Usage
import { AuditManagement } from '@descope/react-sdk';
...
<AuditManagement
widgetId="audit-management-widget"
tenant="tenant-id"
/>
Example:
Manage Audit
User Profile
The UserProfile
widget lets you embed a user profile component in your app and let the logged in user update his profile.
The widget lets you:
- Update user profile picture
- Update user personal information
- Update authentication methods
- Logout
Usage
import { UserProfile } from '@descope/react-sdk';
...
<UserProfile
widgetId="user-profile-widget"
onLogout={() => {
window.location.href = '/login';
}}
/>
Example:
User Profile
Applications Portal
The ApplicationsPortal
lets you embed an applications portal component in your app and allows the logged-in user to open applications they are assigned to.
Usage
import { ApplicationsPortal } from '@descope/react-sdk';
...
<ApplicationsPortal
widgetId="applications-portal-widget"
/>
Example:
Applications Portal
Code Example
You can find an example react app in the examples folder.
Setup
To run the examples, set your Project ID
by setting the DESCOPE_PROJECT_ID
env var or directly
in the sample code.
Find your Project ID in the Descope console.
export DESCOPE_PROJECT_ID=<Project-ID>
Alternatively, put the environment variable in .env
file in the project root directory.
See bellow for an .env
file template with more information.
Run Example
Note: Due to an issue with react-sdk tsconfig, you need to remove "examples"
from the exclude
field in the tsconfig.json
file in the root of the project before running the example.
Run the following command in the root of the project to build and run the example:
npm i && npm start
Example Optional Env Variables
See the following table for customization environment variables for the example app:
Env Variable | Description | Default value |
---|
DESCOPE_FLOW_ID | Which flow ID to use in the login page | sign-up-or-in |
DESCOPE_BASE_URL | Custom Descope base URL | None |
DESCOPE_BASE_STATIC_URL | Allows to override the base URL that is used to fetch static files | https://static.descope.com/pages |
DESCOPE_THEME | Flow theme | None |
DESCOPE_LOCALE | Flow locale | Browser's locale |
DESCOPE_REDIRECT_URL | Flow redirect URL for OAuth/SSO/Magic Link/Enchanted Link | None |
DESCOPE_TENANT_ID | Flow tenant ID for SSO/SAML | None |
DESCOPE_DEBUG_MODE | "true" - Enable debugger "false" - Disable flow debugger | None |
DESCOPE_STEP_UP_FLOW_ID | Step up flow ID to show to logged in user (via button). e.g. "step-up". Button will be hidden if not provided | None |
DESCOPE_TELEMETRY_KEY | String - Telemetry public key provided by Descope Inc | None |
| | |
Example for .env
file template:
# Your project ID
DESCOPE_PROJECT_ID="<Project-ID>"
# Login flow ID
DESCOPE_FLOW_ID=""
# Descope base URL
DESCOPE_BASE_URL=""
# Descope base static URL
DESCOPE_BASE_STATIC_URL=""
# Set flow theme to dark
DESCOPE_THEME=dark
# Set flow locale, default is browser's locale
DESCOPE_LOCALE=""
# Flow Redirect URL
DESCOPE_REDIRECT_URL=""
# Tenant ID
DESCOPE_TENANT_ID=""
# Enable debugger
DESCOPE_DEBUG_MODE=true
# Show step-up flow for logged in user
DESCOPE_STEP_UP_FLOW_ID=step-up
# Telemetry key
DESCOPE_TELEMETRY_KEY=""
FAQ
I updated the user in my backend, but the user / session token are not updated in the frontend
The Descope SDK caches the user and session token in the frontend. If you update the user in your backend (using Descope Management SDK/API for example), you can call me
/ refresh
from useDescope
hook to refresh the user and session token. Example:
const sdk = useDescope();
const handleUpdateUser = useCallback(() => {
myBackendUpdateUser().then(() => {
sdk.me();
sdk.refresh();
});
}, [sdk]);
Learn More
To learn more please see the Descope Documentation and API reference page.
Contact Us
If you need help you can email Descope Support
License
The Descope SDK for React is licensed for use under the terms and conditions of the MIT license Agreement.