react-plaid-link

What is react-plaid-link?

The react-plaid-link npm package is a React wrapper for Plaid Link, which is a quick and secure way to integrate with the Plaid API. It allows users to connect their bank accounts to your application, enabling functionalities like retrieving account balances, transaction histories, and more.

What are react-plaid-link's main functionalities?

Initialize Plaid Link

This code demonstrates how to initialize Plaid Link in a React application. The `PlaidLink` component is configured with necessary props like `clientName`, `env`, `product`, `publicKey`, and `onSuccess` callback.

import React from 'react';
import { PlaidLink } from 'react-plaid-link';

const App = () => {
  const onSuccess = (public_token, metadata) => {
    console.log('Public Token: ', public_token);
    console.log('Metadata: ', metadata);
  };

  return (
    <PlaidLink
      clientName="Your App Name"
      env="sandbox"
      product={['auth', 'transactions']}
      publicKey="your_public_key"
      onSuccess={onSuccess}
    >
      Connect a bank account
    </PlaidLink>
  );
};

export default App;

Handle onExit Callback

This code demonstrates how to handle the `onExit` callback, which is triggered when the user exits the Plaid Link flow. The `onExit` callback provides error information and metadata.

import React from 'react';
import { PlaidLink } from 'react-plaid-link';

const App = () => {
  const onExit = (error, metadata) => {
    console.log('Error: ', error);
    console.log('Metadata: ', metadata);
  };

  return (
    <PlaidLink
      clientName="Your App Name"
      env="sandbox"
      product={['auth', 'transactions']}
      publicKey="your_public_key"
      onExit={onExit}
    >
      Connect a bank account
    </PlaidLink>
  );
};

export default App;

Handle onEvent Callback

This code demonstrates how to handle the `onEvent` callback, which is triggered for various events during the Plaid Link flow. The `onEvent` callback provides the event name and metadata.

import React from 'react';
import { PlaidLink } from 'react-plaid-link';

const App = () => {
  const onEvent = (eventName, metadata) => {
    console.log('Event Name: ', eventName);
    console.log('Metadata: ', metadata);
  };

  return (
    <PlaidLink
      clientName="Your App Name"
      env="sandbox"
      product={['auth', 'transactions']}
      publicKey="your_public_key"
      onEvent={onEvent}
    >
      Connect a bank account
    </PlaidLink>
  );
};

export default App;

Other packages similar to react-plaid-link

react-stripe-elements

The react-stripe-elements package is a React wrapper for Stripe.js, allowing you to build custom payment forms with Stripe. It provides similar functionality in terms of integrating a third-party financial service into a React application, but it focuses on payment processing rather than bank account linking.

react-paypal-button-v2

The react-paypal-button-v2 package is a React component for integrating PayPal's checkout buttons into your application. Like react-plaid-link, it simplifies the integration of a financial service, but it is specifically designed for handling PayPal transactions.

react-google-login

The react-google-login package is a React component for integrating Google login into your application. While it is not a financial service, it provides a similar user authentication flow, making it comparable in terms of user experience and integration complexity.

README

react-plaid-link

React hook and components for integrating with Plaid Link

Compatibility

React 16.8+

Install

With npm:

npm install --save react-plaid-link

With yarn

yarn add react-plaid-link

Documentation

Please refer to the official Plaid Link docs for a more holistic understanding of Plaid Link.

Examples

Head to the react-plaid-link storybook to try out a live demo.

See the examples folder for various complete source code examples.

Using React hooks

This is the preferred approach for integrating with Plaid Link in React.

Note: token can be null initially and then set once you fetch or generate a link_token asynchronously.

ℹ️ See a full source code examples of using hooks:

• examples/simple.tsx: minimal example of using hooks
• examples/hooks.tsx: example using hooks with all available callbacks
• examples/oauth.tsx: example handling OAuth with hooks

import { usePlaidLink } from 'react-plaid-link';

// ...

const { open, ready } = usePlaidLink({
  token: '<GENERATED_LINK_TOKEN>',
  onSuccess: (public_token, metadata) => {
    // send public_token to server
  },
});

return (
  <button onClick={() => open()} disabled={!ready}>
    Connect a bank account
  </button>
);

Available Link configuration options

ℹ️ See src/types/index.ts for exported types.

Please refer to the official Plaid Link docs for a more holistic understanding of the various Link options and the link_token.

usePlaidLink arguments

key	type
token	string | null
onSuccess	(public_token: string, metadata: PlaidLinkOnSuccessMetadata) => void
onExit	(error: null | PlaidLinkError, metadata: PlaidLinkOnExitMetadata) => void
onEvent	(eventName: PlaidLinkStableEvent | string, metadata: PlaidLinkOnEventMetadata) => void
onLoad	() => void
receivedRedirectUri	string | null | undefined

usePlaidLink return value

key	type
open	() => void
ready	boolean
submit	(data: PlaidHandlerSubmissionData) => void
error	ErrorEvent | null
exit	(options?: { force: boolean }, callback?: () => void) => void

OAuth / opening Link without a button click

Handling OAuth redirects requires opening Link without any user input (such as clicking a button). This can also be useful if you simply want Link to open immediately when your page or component renders.

ℹ️ See full source code example at examples/oauth.tsx

import { usePlaidLink } from 'react-plaid-link';

// ...

const { open, ready } = usePlaidLink(config);

// open Link immediately when ready
React.useEffect(() => {
  if (ready) {
    open();
  }
}, [ready, open]);

return <></>;

Using the pre-built component instead of the usePlaidLink hook

If you cannot use React hooks for legacy reasons such as incompatibility with class components, you can use the PlaidLink component.

ℹ️ See full source code example at examples/component.tsx

import { PlaidLink } from "react-plaid-link";

const App extends React.Component {
  // ...
  render() {
    return (
      <PlaidLink
        token={this.state.token}
        onSuccess={this.onSuccess}
        // onEvent={...}
        // onExit={...}
      >
        Link your bank account
      </PlaidLink>
    );
  }
}

Typescript support

TypeScript definitions for react-plaid-link are built into the npm package. If you have previously installed @types/react-plaid-link before this package had types, please uninstall it in favor of built-in types.