This integration guide will walk you through setting up and managing authentication and authorization in your AngularJS apps using Auth0.

Get Your Application Keys

When you signed up for Auth0, you were invited to create a new client.

There are some details about this client that your application needs to know about to properly communicate with Auth0, including your Client ID and Domain. You can retrieve these values from the settings area for your client in the Auth0 dashboard.

Please note that if you download the samples available for this tutorial, these keys will be pre-populated for you. If you have created more than one client in your account, the sample will come with the values for your Default App.

Configure Callback URLs

A callback URL is a URL in your application where Auth0 redirects to after the user has authenticated. You need to whitelist a callback URL for your app in the Callback URLs field in your Client Settings. If no callback URLs are set, a mismatch error will be displayed when a user logs in.

If you are following along with the downloadable sample projects for this tutorial directly, the Callback URL should be set to

http://localhost:3000/callback

Install auth0.js

Integrating Auth0 in your application requires the auth0.js library. Install it using npm or yarn.

# installation with npm
npm install --save auth0-js

# installation with yarn
yarn add auth0-js

Once auth0.js is installed, add it to your build system or bring it in to your project with a script tag.

<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/auth0-js/build/auth0.js"></script>

If you don't want to use a package manager, auth0.js can also be retrieved from Auth0's CDN.

<script src="https://cdn.auth0.com/js/auth0/8.7/auth0.min.js"></script>

Install angular-auth0

Using auth0.js in your AngularJS application requires a thin wrapper called angular-auth0. Install it with npm or yarn.

# installation with npm
npm install --save angular-auth0@beta

# installation with yarn
yarn add angular-auth0@beta

Once angular-auth0 is installed, add it to your build system or bring it in to your project as a script tag.

<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/angular-auth0/dist/angular-auth0.js"></script>

Add Authentication with Auth0

The first step in adding authentication to your AngularJS application is to provide a way for your users to log in. The fastest, most secure, and most feature-rich way to do this with Auth0 is to use the hosted login page.

When authentication is successful, three items will be returned which can all be used at some point in your application: an access_token, an id_token, and the number of seconds until the access_token expires.

Configure angular-auth0

The angular-auth0 wrapper comes with a provider called angularAuth0Provider. This provider has an init method which takes a configuration object used to instantiate WebAuth from auth0.js . Inject angularAuth0Provider and pass the details for your client.

// app/app.js

(function () {

  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('app', ['auth0.auth0', 'ui.router'])
    .config(config);

  config.$inject = [
    '$stateProvider',
    '$locationProvider',
    '$urlRouterProvider',
    'angularAuth0Provider'
  ];

  function config(
    $stateProvider,
    $locationProvider,
    $urlRouterProvider,
    angularAuth0Provider
  ) {

    $stateProvider
      .state('home', {
        url: '/',
        controller: 'HomeController',
        templateUrl: 'app/home/home.html',
        controllerAs: 'vm'
      })
      .state('callback', {
        url: '/callback',
        controller: 'CallbackController',
        templateUrl: 'app/callback/callback.html',
        controllerAs: 'vm'
      });

    // Initialization for the angular-auth0 library
    angularAuth0Provider.init({
      clientID: 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID',
      domain: 'YOUR_AUTH0_DOMAIN',
      responseType: 'token id_token',
      audience: 'https://YOUR_AUTH0_DOMAIN/userinfo',
      redirectUri: 'http://localhost:3000/callback',
      scope: 'openid'
    });

    $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/');

    $locationProvider.hashPrefix('');

    /// Comment out the line below to run the app
    // without HTML5 mode (will use hashes in routes)
    $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
  }

})();

The options object passed to angularAuth0Provider.init includes configuration for your client and domain, a response type to indicate you would like to receive an access_token and id_token after authentication, and an audience and scope which specify that authentication should be OIDC conformant. Also specified is the location that users should be returned to after authentication is complete. In this case, that's a route of /callback, which will be implemented later.

Create an Authentication Service

The best way to manage and coordinate the tasks necessary for user authentication is to create a reusable service. With the service in place, you'll be able to call its methods throughout your application. The name for it is at your discretion, but in these examples it will be called authService and the filename will be auth.service.js.

Create a service and provide a method called login which calls the authorize from angular-auth0.

// app/auth/auth.service.js

(function () {

  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('app')
    .service('authService', authService);

  authService.$inject = ['$state', 'angularAuth0', '$timeout'];

  function authService($state, angularAuth0, $timeout) {

    function login() {
      angularAuth0.authorize();
    }

    return {
      login: login
    }
  }
})();

Finish Out the Service

Add some additional methods to the authService to fully handle authentication in the app.

// app/auth/auth.service.js

(function () {

  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('app')
    .service('authService', authService);

  authService.$inject = ['$state', 'angularAuth0', '$timeout'];

  function authService($state, angularAuth0, $timeout) {

    // ...    
    function handleAuthentication() {
      angularAuth0.parseHash(function(err, authResult) {
        if (authResult && authResult.accessToken && authResult.idToken) {
          setSession(authResult);
          $state.go('home');
        } else if (err) {
          $timeout(function() {
            $state.go('home');
          });
          console.log(err);
        }
      });
    }

    function setSession(authResult) {
      // Set the time that the access token will expire at
      let expiresAt = JSON.stringify((authResult.expiresIn * 1000) + new Date().getTime());
      localStorage.setItem('access_token', authResult.accessToken);
      localStorage.setItem('id_token', authResult.idToken);
      localStorage.setItem('expires_at', expiresAt);
    }
    
    function logout() {
      // Remove tokens and expiry time from localStorage
      localStorage.removeItem('access_token');
      localStorage.removeItem('id_token');
      localStorage.removeItem('expires_at');
    }
    
    function isAuthenticated() {
      // Check whether the current time is past the 
      // access token's expiry time
      let expiresAt = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('expires_at'));
      return new Date().getTime() < expiresAt;
    }

    return {
      // ...
      handleAuthentication: handleAuthentication,
      logout: logout,
      isAuthenticated: isAuthenticated
    }
  }
})();

The service now includes several other methods for handling authentication.

• handleAuthentication - looks for an authentication result in the URL hash and processes it with the parseHash method from auth0.js
• setSession - sets the user's access_token, id_token, and a time at which the access_token will expire
• logout - removes the user's tokens from browser storage
• isAuthenticated - checks whether the expiry time for the access_token has passed

About the Authentication Service

When a user successfully authenticates at Auth0's hosted login page and is redirected back to your application, there will be a hash fragment in the URL containing their authentication information. Contained within will be an access_token, an id_token and an expires_in value. These values are extracted from the URL using the parseHash method from auth0.js and are then saved into local storage with the setSession method. This method also calculates the time at which the access_token will expire using the expires_in value from the hash.

Authentication using JSON Web Tokens is stateless by nature, meaning that there is no information about the user's session stored on your server. In this way, setting up a session for the user on the client side is simply a matter of saving the access_token, id_token, and a time that the access_token expires at in browser storage. Conversely, logging the user out only requires that these items be removed from storage. These examples use local storage to save the tokens and the expiry time, but you may also use session storage or cookies if you wish.

The application needs some way to make decisions about showing or hiding UI elements and restricting routing based on whether or not the user can be considered "authenticated". Once again, since JWT authentication is stateless, there is no real way to say whether the user is authenticated in any traditional sense, but there are clues that can be used. The best clue to go with is whether or not the access_token is expired. If it is expired, anything meaningful that the user could do with it--such as a call to your API for protected resources--will not work. It's at this point that the user would need to reauthenticate and get a new token. The isAuthenticated method checks whether the expiry time for the access_token has passed or not so that the above-mentioned decisions can be made.

Provide a Login Control

Provide a component with controls for the user to log in and log out.

<!-- app/navbar/navbar.html -->

<nav class="navbar navbar-default">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <div class="navbar-header">
      <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Auth0 - AngularJS</a>

      <button
        class="btn btn-primary btn-margin"
        ui-sref="home">
          Home
      </button>

      <button
        class="btn btn-primary btn-margin"
        ng-if="!vm.auth.isAuthenticated()"
        ng-click="vm.auth.login()">
          Log In
      </button>

      <button
        class="btn btn-primary btn-margin"
        ng-if="vm.auth.isAuthenticated()"
        ng-click="vm.auth.logout()">
          Log Out
      </button>

    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

// app/navbar/navbar.directive.js

(function() {
  
  'use strict';
  
  angular
    .module('app')
    .directive('navbar', navbar);
    
  function navbar() {
    return {
      templateUrl: 'app/navbar/navbar.html',
      controller: navbarController,
      controllerAs: 'vm'
    }
  }

  navbarController.$inject = ['authService'];
    
  function navbarController(authService) {
    var vm = this;
    vm.auth = authService;
  }
  
})();

The ng-click events on the Log In and Log Out buttons make the appropriate calls to the authService to allow the user to log in and log out. Notice that these buttons are conditionally hidden and shown depending on whether or not the user is currently authenticated.

When the Log In button is clicked, the user will be redirected to Auth0's hosted login page.

Process the Authentication Result

When a user authenticates at Auth0's hosted login page and is then redirected back to your application, their authentication information will be contained in a URL hash fragment. The handleAuthentication method in the authService is responsbile for processing the hash.

Call handleAuthentication in your app's run block so that the authentication hash fragment can be processed when the app first loads after the user is redirected back to it.

// app/app.run.js

(function () {

  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('app')
    .run(run);

  run.$inject = ['authService'];
    
  function run(authService) {
    // Handle the authentication
    // result in the hash
    authService.handleAuthentication();
  }

})();

Add a Callback Component

Using Auth0's hosted login page means that users are taken away from your application to a page hosted by Auth0. After they successfully authenticate, they are returned to your application where a client-side session is set for them.

You can choose to have users return to any URL in your application that you like; however, it is recommended that you create a dedicated callback route to serve as a central location that the user will be returned to upon successful authentication. Having a single callback route is beneficial for two main reasons:

• It prevents the need to whitelist multiple (and sometimes unknown) callback URLs
• It serves as a place to show a loading indicator while your application sets the user's client-side session

Create a controller and template to use for a callback route and populate it with a loading indicator.

// app/callback/callback.controller.js

(function () {

  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('app')
    .controller('CallbackController', callbackController);

  function callbackController() {}

})();

<!-- app/callback/callback.html -->

<div class="loading">
  <img src="assets/loading.svg" alt="loading">
</div>

After authentication, users will be taken to the /callback route for a brief time where they will be shown a loading indicator. During this time, their client-side session will be set, after which they will be redirected to the /home route.

Embedded Login

Auth0's hosted login page provides the fastest, most secure, and most feature-rich way to implement authentication in your app. If required, the Lock widget can also be embedded directly into your application, but certain features such as single sign-on won't be accessible. It is highly recommended that you use the hosted login page (as covered in this tutorial), but if you wish to embed the Lock widget directly in your application, follow the Embedded Login sample.