Social Login With Supabase And Next.js: A Quick Guide

Hey guys! Ever wanted to add social login to your Next.js app but felt a bit overwhelmed? Don't worry, I've got you covered! In this guide, we'll walk through setting up social login using Supabase and Next.js. It's easier than you think, and by the end, you'll have users signing in with their favorite social providers. Let's dive in!

Why Social Login?

Social login offers a seamless and user-friendly experience, eliminating the need for users to create and remember yet another password. By allowing users to sign in with their existing social accounts, such as Google, Facebook, or GitHub, you reduce friction and increase the likelihood of user registration and engagement. This streamlined process not only enhances user satisfaction but also simplifies the authentication process for developers. Integrating social login can lead to higher conversion rates, improved user retention, and a more modern and convenient login experience. Moreover, social login can provide valuable user data, such as email addresses and profile information, which can be used to personalize the user experience and tailor content to individual preferences. With the increasing prevalence of social media, users are already familiar with the concept of using their social accounts to access various services, making social login a natural and intuitive choice. Embracing social login can significantly improve your application's usability and attractiveness, setting it apart in a competitive digital landscape. By simplifying the sign-up process, you can focus on delivering a superior user experience and building a loyal user base.

Setting Up Supabase

First things first, let's get Supabase set up. If you don't already have a Supabase account, head over to Supabase and create one. Once you're in, create a new project. Supabase is awesome because it gives you a whole backend as a service – database, authentication, storage, and more – all in one place. After creating your project, grab your Supabase URL and anon key from the project settings. You'll need these to connect your Next.js app to Supabase. Keep these keys safe and don't expose them in your client-side code! We'll use environment variables for that. Think of Supabase as your project's super-powered assistant, handling all the heavy lifting behind the scenes. It simplifies the complexities of backend development, allowing you to focus on building the frontend features that your users will love. With Supabase, you can quickly prototype and deploy your applications, without worrying about the intricacies of server management and database administration. Its intuitive interface and comprehensive documentation make it easy to get started, even if you're new to backend development. From setting up authentication to managing your database schema, Supabase provides all the tools you need to build scalable and robust applications with ease. By leveraging Supabase's capabilities, you can accelerate your development process and bring your ideas to life faster than ever before.

Creating a Next.js App

Now, let's create a new Next.js app. Open your terminal and run:

npx create-next-app social-login-app
cd social-login-app

This will scaffold a new Next.js project for you. Next.js is fantastic because it offers server-side rendering, static site generation, and a great developer experience out of the box. It's perfect for building modern web applications with React. Once your project is created, open it in your favorite code editor. Take a moment to explore the project structure and familiarize yourself with the different files and directories. Next.js follows a file-based routing system, where each file in the pages directory corresponds to a route in your application. This makes it easy to create new pages and navigate between them. Additionally, Next.js provides built-in support for API routes, allowing you to create backend endpoints directly within your Next.js project. This simplifies the process of building full-stack applications without the need for a separate backend server. With its optimized performance and developer-friendly features, Next.js is an excellent choice for building fast, scalable, and maintainable web applications. Whether you're building a simple blog or a complex e-commerce platform, Next.js provides the tools and flexibility you need to succeed. By leveraging its capabilities, you can create compelling user experiences and deliver high-quality applications that meet the demands of today's web.

Installing Supabase Client

Next, we need to install the Supabase client library. Run:

npm install @supabase/supabase-js

This library will allow us to interact with our Supabase backend from our Next.js app. The Supabase client library provides a simple and intuitive API for making requests to your Supabase project. It handles authentication, data fetching, and real-time updates, allowing you to focus on building the features of your application. With the Supabase client library, you can easily query your database, insert new data, update existing records, and delete data. It also provides support for advanced features such as filtering, sorting, and pagination. Additionally, the Supabase client library automatically handles token management, ensuring that your application remains secure and protected against unauthorized access. By using the Supabase client library, you can simplify your codebase and reduce the amount of boilerplate code required to interact with your Supabase backend. This allows you to develop faster and more efficiently, while also ensuring that your application is reliable and secure. Whether you're building a simple todo list or a complex social network, the Supabase client library provides the tools you need to build powerful and engaging applications.

Setting Up Environment Variables

Create a .env.local file in the root of your project and add your Supabase URL and anon key:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=your_supabase_url
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your_supabase_anon_key

Important: Make sure to prefix these with NEXT_PUBLIC_ so they are accessible in your client-side code. Remember to replace your_supabase_url and your_supabase_anon_key with your actual Supabase credentials. Environment variables are a crucial aspect of modern web development, allowing you to store sensitive information and configuration settings outside of your codebase. By using environment variables, you can easily manage different environments, such as development, staging, and production, without modifying your code. This ensures that your application remains flexible and adaptable to different deployment scenarios. Additionally, environment variables provide a secure way to store API keys, database passwords, and other sensitive information that should not be exposed in your code. By keeping these secrets separate from your codebase, you can protect your application against unauthorized access and data breaches. In Next.js, environment variables prefixed with NEXT_PUBLIC_ are automatically exposed to the client-side code, allowing you to access them from your React components. This makes it easy to configure your application based on the environment in which it is running. By using environment variables effectively, you can improve the security, maintainability, and scalability of your Next.js applications.

Creating the Sign-In Component

Let's create a simple sign-in component. Create a new file components/SignIn.js:

// components/SignIn.js
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';
import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

const supabaseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL;
const supabaseAnonKey = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY;
const supabase = createClient(supabaseUrl, supabaseAnonKey);

function SignIn() {
  const [session, setSession] = useState(null)

  useEffect(() => {
    supabase.auth.getSession().then(({ data: { session } }) => {
      setSession(session)
    })

    supabase.auth.onAuthStateChange((_event, session) => {
      setSession(session)
    })
  }, [])

  async function signInWithGoogle() {
    const { error } = await supabase.auth.signInWithOAuth({
      provider: 'google',
    });
    if (error) {
      console.error('Error signing in with Google:', error.message);
    }
  }

  async function signOut() {
    await supabase.auth.signOut()
  }

  if (!session) {
    return (
      <div>
        <button onClick={signInWithGoogle}>Sign in with Google</button>
      </div>
    )
  } else {
    return (
      <div>
        <p>Welcome, {session.user.email}!</p>
        <button onClick={signOut}>Sign Out</button>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

export default SignIn;

This component initializes the Supabase client, handles the Google sign-in flow, and displays a button to sign in or sign out. It also displays the user's email if they are signed in. Creating reusable components is a fundamental principle of React development, allowing you to encapsulate logic and UI elements into modular units. This promotes code reuse, improves maintainability, and simplifies the development process. In this case, the SignIn component encapsulates the logic for authenticating users with Google using Supabase. It handles the initialization of the Supabase client, the sign-in and sign-out flows, and the display of the user's authentication status. By encapsulating this logic into a separate component, you can easily reuse it in multiple places throughout your application. Additionally, the SignIn component follows the principles of separation of concerns, keeping the authentication logic separate from the rest of your application's code. This makes it easier to test, debug, and update the authentication functionality without affecting other parts of your application. By creating well-designed and reusable components, you can build robust and scalable React applications that are easy to maintain and extend. This promotes code quality, reduces development time, and improves the overall user experience.

Integrating the Component into Your Page

Now, let's integrate the SignIn component into your pages/index.js:

// pages/index.js
import SignIn from '../components/SignIn';

function Home() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Supabase Social Login with Next.js</h1>
      <SignIn />
    </div>
  );
}

export default Home;

This will render the SignIn component on your homepage. Integrating components into your pages is a key aspect of building dynamic and interactive web applications with Next.js. By importing and rendering components within your pages, you can create complex user interfaces that are composed of smaller, reusable building blocks. In this case, the SignIn component is imported into the pages/index.js file and rendered within the Home component. This allows you to display the sign-in form on your homepage, providing users with a convenient way to authenticate themselves. Additionally, integrating components into your pages allows you to create modular and maintainable code. By breaking down your application into smaller, self-contained components, you can easily update and modify individual parts of your application without affecting the rest of the codebase. This promotes code reuse, simplifies testing, and improves the overall development process. Furthermore, integrating components into your pages allows you to leverage the power of React's component-based architecture, enabling you to build complex UIs with ease. By combining components, you can create rich and engaging user experiences that are tailored to the specific needs of your application.

Configuring Social Authentication in Supabase

Head back to your Supabase project, go to Authentication > Providers, and enable Google (or any other provider you want to use). You'll need to configure the OAuth redirect URI. This should be set to your Next.js app's URL with /api/auth/callback/google. For example, http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/google for local development. Configuring social authentication providers in Supabase is a crucial step in enabling users to sign in to your application using their existing social accounts. Supabase supports a wide range of social authentication providers, including Google, Facebook, GitHub, and more. To configure a provider, you'll need to enable it in your Supabase project and provide the necessary credentials, such as the client ID and client secret. Additionally, you'll need to configure the OAuth redirect URI, which is the URL that Supabase will redirect users to after they have authenticated with the provider. This URI must match the URL of your Next.js application's authentication callback endpoint. Once you have configured the social authentication providers, users will be able to sign in to your application using their social accounts. Supabase will handle the authentication process, verifying the user's credentials and creating a user account in your Supabase project. This simplifies the authentication process for both users and developers, allowing you to focus on building the core features of your application. By leveraging Supabase's social authentication capabilities, you can provide a seamless and user-friendly sign-in experience for your users.

Running Your App

Finally, run your Next.js app:

npm run dev

Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000. You should see the sign-in button. Click it, and you'll be redirected to Google to authenticate. After authenticating, you'll be redirected back to your app, and you should see your email displayed. Running your Next.js application is the final step in bringing your project to life and making it accessible to users. By running the npm run dev command, you start the Next.js development server, which automatically watches for changes in your code and reloads the application whenever you make modifications. This allows you to quickly iterate and test your application during development. Once the development server is running, you can access your application in your browser by navigating to the specified URL, typically http://localhost:3000. This will display the user interface of your application, allowing you to interact with it and verify its functionality. Additionally, running your Next.js application allows you to debug and troubleshoot any issues that may arise. By using the browser's developer tools, you can inspect the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code of your application, as well as monitor network requests and console logs. This helps you identify and resolve any errors or performance bottlenecks in your application. Furthermore, running your Next.js application allows you to test its responsiveness and compatibility across different devices and browsers. By simulating different screen sizes and resolutions, you can ensure that your application looks and functions correctly on a wide range of devices.

Conclusion

And that's it! You've successfully set up social login with Supabase and Next.js. How cool is that? You can now let users sign in with Google (or any other provider you configured) with just a few lines of code. This is a basic setup, but it gives you a solid foundation to build upon. You can customize the UI, add more providers, and implement more complex authentication flows. Happy coding, and have fun building awesome apps! Remember, the key to success is to keep learning and experimenting. Don't be afraid to try new things and push the boundaries of what's possible. With Supabase and Next.js, you have the tools and the platform to create amazing web applications that can make a real impact on the world. So go out there and build something great! And if you ever get stuck, don't hesitate to reach out to the community for help. There are plenty of resources and support available to help you succeed. With a little bit of effort and determination, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. So keep coding, keep learning, and keep building! The future is yours to create, so make it a bright one!