Hello! This is my attempt at providing an example on how to use Remix (an amazing tool for building SSR web applications in React) with SuperTokens (an open source alternative to user authentication). Note that this repository uses the EmailPassword/Passwordless/ThirdParty recipes/approachs from SuperTokens for its examples. However, the code here should be easily transferrable to the other authentication repices/methods that SuperTokens provides.
Note that this application takes an SSR-only approach for three reasons: 1) Better security (big plus), 2) Guaranteed progressive enhancement (also a big plus), and 3) Easier code management (arguably).
If there are any questions, concerns, or ideas for improvement, feel free to reach out to me in the SuperTokens Discord or the Remix Discord. (Technically either one works. But if your question is more oriented towards SuperTokens, you should probably ping me on the SuperTokens Discord.)
If you're interested, there are other versions of this project as well:
- Start the SCSS-to-CSS compiler by running
npm run sass.- This is necessary because
Remixonly readsCSSfiles, notSCSSfiles; soRemixneeds compiled CSS files that it can reference.
- This is necessary because
- Start the dev server by running
npm run dev.- Remember to add your own
.envfile to configure SuperTokens! You will need to configure:DOMAIN(e.g.,http://localhost:3000)SUPERTOKENS_CONNECTION_URI(e.g.,https://try.supertokens.com)SUPERTOKENS_API_KEY(optional if yourSUPERTOKENS_CONNECTION_URIishttps://try.supertokens.com)SUPERTOKENS_WEBSITE_DOMAIN(e.g.,http://localhost:3000)SUPERTOKENS_API_DOMAIN(e.g.,http://localhost:3000)SUPERTOKENS_API_BASE_PATH(e.g.,/auth)
- Remember to add your own
Note that you will need to configure additional environment variables for testing the ThirdParty login feature. (See the usage of SuperTokens.init() in this project.)
By default, the application uses the EmailPassword recipe provided by SuperTokens for logging in. If you click the Login button, you will be directed to the EmailPassword login page (/login). If you logout, you will be redirected to that page. If you lack valid credentials and attempt to visit a protected route, you will again be redirected to that page.
To authenticate using the Passwordless recipe provided by SuperTokens, you will need to navigate to /passwordless/login instead of /login. Once you login from the Passwordless page, the rest of the user experience behaves the same (e.g., visiting protected routes, refreshing your auth session, logging out, etc.). If you prefer Passwordless authentication, feel free to change all of the links/redirects from /login to /passwordless/login. (I know that sounds tedious. In the future, I might create an ENV var that lets you toggle this behavior instead.)
Similar to above, you will need to visit /thirdparty/login to authenticate using the ThirdParty recipe provided by SuperTokens. Below are some links that can help you get started with different OAuth Providers.
Be careful to adhere to the guidelines of your OAuth Providers if you are using their logos on your site.
If you have specific questions about how the Passwordless recipe works, you might be helped by visiting the Q&A exchange between some of the developers. For questions about the ThirdParty recipe, visit the discussion here.
- If you're using the
EmailPasswordrecipe, then you don't need thepasswordless.login.tsxpage or thethirdparty.login.tsxpage (or their dependencies). - If you're using the
Passwordlessrecipe, then you don't need thelogin.tsx,reset-password.tsx, andthirdparty.login.tsxpages (or their dependencies). - If you're using the
ThirdPartyrecipe, then you don't need thelogin.tsx,reset-password.tsx, andpasswordless.login.tsxpages (or their dependencies).
Obviously, you can decide how much you care about the (S)CSS files. Beyond that, the rest of the code in the codebase should always be relevant for you. The (very few) parts that aren't should be obvious.
Account Linking is not supported by this example project (yet). Consequently, if you login to the application with 2 different methods (e.g., Passwordless and ThirdParty) which both use the same User Email, then you should expect 2 separate accounts to be created. These accounts will not be merged. Ideally, most users of your application will only use one method for authentication; so this shouldn't be a significant problem.
If the idea of creating 2 separate accounts with the same email concerns you, then you can require your users to use only one login method. To help you accomplish this, you can use SuperTokens.listUsersByAccountInfo to check for existing accounts related to a user. (For example, you can list all accounts having an email that you specify.) You can check this account data to ensure that users logging into your application only authenticate with the method which they originally used to sign up. Below is an example of how you could handle this.
Example of Checking the Authentication Method
// This function assumes that `EmailPassword`, `Passwordless`, AND `ThirdParty` are all used in the same app.
async function verifyAuthMethod(request: Request): boolean {
// Note: If you have already read the `FormData`, then you should pass it to this function as a separate argument.
const formData = await request.formData();
const { searchParams } = new URL(request.url);
// For `Passwordless`/`EmailPassword`, you can get the email from your form data.
// For `ThirdParty`, use `provider.getUserInfo()` to get the email AFTER your user is redirected to your app.
let email = formData.get("email");
// Check URL for a Provider ID in case user is coming back from a Provider Redirect (`ThirdParty` only)
if (!email) {
const providerId = searchParams.get("provider") ?? "";
// Note: If necessary, pass a valid `clientType` instead of `undefined`
const provider = await ThirdParty.getProvider(tenantId, providerId, undefined);
if (provider) {
const oAuthTokens = await provider.exchangeAuthCodeForOAuthTokens(/* ... Provide any data needed here ... */);
const userInfoFromProvider = await provider.getUserInfo({ oAuthTokens });
email = userInfoFromProvider.email.id;
}
}
// If your application logic is correct, this array should always be length `0` or `1`
const [user] = await SuperTokens.listUsersByAccountInfo(tenantId, { email });
// This is an entirely new account. Someone is signing up for the first time.
if (!user) return true;
// For `EmailPassword`/`Passwordless`, you can get this from a hidden input in your form.
// For `ThirdParty`, you need to use something else (like a Query Parameter) when the user is redirected to your app.
const recipeId = formData.get("recipeId") ?? searchParams.get("recipeId");
// Again, if your application logic is correct, this array should always be length `0` or `1`
const [currentLoginMethod] = user.loginMethods;
return currentLoginMethod.recipeId === recipeId;
}You can add to (or subtract from) the above logic according to your needs.
Note that Account Linking is a paid feature in SuperTokens. Consequently, you should expect to be charged if you run tests locally with Account Linking enabled.
This project uses ESM by default. (This was accomplished by setting type to "module" in the package.json file.) Unfortunately, this creates some complications. In short, all imports that will be handled by Node.js -- whether in transpiled files or in untranspiled files -- need to follow the rules that Node.js provides for ESM imports. Some examples:
- The
/server.jsfile is pure JS. It is not transpiled, and it is run directly by Node. Therefore, it must properly include the.jsfile extension for relative imports. - Node.js will eventually encounter
index.server.ts(post transpilation). Node.js cannot understandimport Session from "supertokens-node/recipe/session"when using ESM, and Remix does not transpile this import since it comes fromnode_modules. Therefore, you must change it toimport Session from "supertokens-node/recipe/session/index.js"for Node's sake.
We've already taken care of this for you in our project. However, you should keep this in mind when extending this project with your own code.
(Some additional context: https://discord.com/channels/770287896669978684/1194003027695247391/1194003027695247391)
There seems to have been some controversy surrounding the new file routing convention in Remix v2. Due to its (subjectively) unappealing look to the maintainers, we are using the old file routing convention. However, you are more than welcome to use Remix's new system by removing the customization! Because this project doesn't use any directories for file routing, you will not experience any significant differences between either routing convention (assuming you haven't extended the project yet).
For what it's worth, the well-known web developer, Kent C. Dodds, has chosen to go with a convention crafted by Kiliman. It seems favorable, and this project may very well incorporate it in the future.
There are a few reasons why a custom UI was used in this repository (instead of what SuperTokens provides for React). To give just a few...
- The current components that SuperTokens provides require client-side JavaScript.1 This means that users who disable (or for some reason fail to properly download) the JavaScript necessary for your web app will be unable login. (It also means a larger JS bundle size and a slower application.) Having a custom solution that doesn't require JavaScript for your application to work will improve user experience. Moreoever, it makes Remix easier to integrate with.
- The current solutions that SuperTokens provides are not very accessible (yet). A custom solution allows us to make our forms more accessible while we wait for improvements. Note that I am still making improvements on this repo, myself; so suggestions are welcome. Consult the MDN docs for more a11y info. Some example concerns can be found in SUPERTOKENS_SUGGESTIONS.
- By writing out the code from scratch, this repository becomes far more transferrable between JS frameworks (especially frameworks that SuperTokens does not yet have example components for).
- A custom solution is easier to add custom styles to via CSS.
- A custom solution gives you a better idea of what the components provided by SuperTokens do for you (for those of you who are overly curious like me).
Depending too much on supertokens-website or supertokens-web-js will result in an application that cannot run without JavaScript. And an application that can't run without JavaScript is actually inaccessible to a lot of users. Consequently, we've pursued a solution that works without these pacakages and without JavaScript. (Don't worry! We still enhance the app with JS to improve the user's experience whenever possible.) This means that our application will be accessible to the broadest range of users! 😄
As an added bonus, we decrease our JS bundle size significantly when we avoid the use of supertokens-website and especially supertokens-web-js.
If you've seen the comments from @Rich-Harris (creator of Svelte) regarding server middleware (e.g., Express Middleware), then you'll know that solutions which require you to use middleware are often restricted and will prevent you from enhancing your application with other very important features. This is especially true if you're working with an SSR framework. Unfortunately, I have found Rich Harris's statements to be correct while working with my own Remix application. There are workarounds for these problem cases that allow people to still use middleware... but those aggressive workarounds often end up looking more ugly and complicated. (And thus, such approaches are more prone to error).
Avoiding the supertokens-node middleware ended up being required for me to use HTTPS in my application and get it working with high security in Cloudflare. I'll spare you the details, but there are other edge cases like these where supertokens-node middleware just won't work (or won't work well). Thankfully, in supertokens-node@14, the SuperTokens team was kind enough to introduce functions that allow you to get authentication working without using their custom middleware. If you're using any kind of SSR framework that leverages progressive enhancement (SvelteKit, Remix, SolidStart, etc.), then you'll want to leverage these functions instead of using the middleware as well.
Absolutely! This project puts the different authentication methods on different pages. But that is only done to make the server logic on each individual page smaller. You are more than welcome to combine multiple authentication methods on a single page. For example, you could merge the EmailPassword Login Page with the ThirdParty Login Page. All you need to do is combine the UI Markup and the Server Logic as needed.
Although the middleware-free approach gives us many advantages when it comes to using SuperTokens with SSR frameworks, it also gives us a little more responsibility. You'll notice in this app that we have to be intentional about the settings which we use for our HTTP cookies. You don't necessarily need to use the settings in this project (though you should use HttpOnly and you should set a strict Path), but you should certainly ensure that your settings are the safest that they can be for your application. Here are some resources that may be helpful for you on the matter:
It doesn't currently seem like Remix provides any significant CSRF protection out of the box; so if you're interested in addressing the matter and you're willing to stay with Remix (instead of trying out something else like SvelteKit), consider the following resources:
SuperTokens does have some anti-CSRF features, but there are cases where it should be used and cases where it need not be used. From @rishabhpoddar:
Basically, when you call
createNewSessionWithoutRequestResponse, and if you get an anti csrf token, then you should pass that in when usinggetSessionWithoutRequestResponse. If you do not get an anti csrf token, you don't need it (based on yourapiDomainandwebsiteDomainsetting) and should check for custom request header before callinggetSessionWithoutRequestResponse. You should not explicitly set the value ofdisableAntiCsrfwhen calling createNewSession unless you are not using cookies at all.
Bear in mind that if you're using a framework that (sufficiently) protects against CSRF by default, then you don't necessarily need to worry about the custom headers yourself.
I hope you find this useful! Let me know your thoughts here on GitHub or on the SuperTokens Discord. :) If there are any ways that I can improve anything here, feel free to say so.
Original Remix README
Start the Remix development asset server and the Express server by running:
npm run devThis starts your app in development mode, which will purge the server require cache when Remix rebuilds assets so you don't need a process manager restarting the express server.
First, build your app for production:
npm run buildThen run the app in production mode:
npm startNow you'll need to pick a host to deploy it to.
If you're familiar with deploying express applications you should be right at home just make sure to deploy the output of remix build
server/build/public/build/
When you ran npx create-remix@latest there were a few choices for hosting. You can run that again to create a new project, then copy over your app/ folder to the new project that's pre-configured for your target server.
cd ..
# create a new project, and pick a pre-configured host
npx create-remix@latest
cd my-new-remix-app
# remove the new project's app (not the old one!)
rm -rf app
# copy your app over
cp -R ../my-old-remix-app/app appFootnotes
-
Almost certainly, these concerns with the components provided by SuperTokens will be resolved in the future. (Part of the point of this repo is to give potential ideas for improvement.) ↩