Wrestling with authentication complexity? Want to ship your app in a weekend?
Worry no more because 

Think about it: no more worrying about password hashing, token management, or setting up authentication servers. Instead of spending time building the main app functionality, you can leverage 

 for a production-ready solution in minutes.

: Firebase handles sensitive operations like password hashing, token management, and secure session handling.

: With just a few lines of code, you get a production-ready authentication system.

: Built on Google’s infrastructure, it scales automatically with your user base.

Familiarity with async/await and promises

Basic understanding of authentication concepts

We'll create a complete authentication system featuring:

User authentication credentials stored in Firestore

Persistent login sessions and Authentication State

Navigate to the Firebase page and create a project with a name of your choice.

For this project, let’s disable Google Analytics.

Allow a few minutes for the project to be created.

 button and enable the providers you need for authentication.

.After selecting your provider, you’ll be navigated to the 

 page, which shows a list of your active authentication providers.

After selecting your provider, you’ll be navigated to the 

match /databases/{database}/documents { ... }



Matches all documents in Firestore db.




Specifically matches documents within the users collection, where {userId} its representing any user ID.



allow read: if request.auth != null && request.auth.uid == userId;



Allows read access to a user document only if the request is authenticated 

and the authenticated user's ID matches the document ID

allow write: if request.auth != null && request.auth.uid == userId;



Allows write access to a user document under the same conditions as read access: 

Firebase provides a variety of functions to enable a custom and simplified authentication flow:


Functionality for registering users with an email and password.


Enables user login to access restricted features.


Allows users to reset their password securely if forgotten.


Lets users log out from their account and end the session.


A way to listen to real-time authentication state changes, like login or logout, across the app.

 async function handles user registration in Firebase Auth by taking user credential

It creates a new user account in your Firebase project, sets up their initial password, and returns a

. The auth object represents your initialized Firebase 

, while email and password come from user input fields

 async function handles user authentication in Firebase by 

validating provided client side credentials

 (auth, email, password). It checks these against existing Firebase user accounts, and if matched, returns a Promise containing the user's credential object.

 async function manages Firebase's password recovery process. When triggered with your 

 to that email address. This link gives users a secure way to create a new password. The function returns a 

- if successful, the user gets a recovery email; if it fails (like with an invalid email), it throws an error that your code can catch and handle appropriately.

, clearing all authentication state. When invoked, it removes the

 and returns a Promise that resolves once they're successfully logged out.

real-time listener keeps track of user authentication status . It 

 to the user's sign-in state (logging in, logging out, or token expiry) and triggers a callback function that lets you update your app accordingly.This helps maintain proper UI state -eg showing different content for logged-in versus logged-out users.

: Individual data records that contain user data with unique IDs. Documents can also have 

Dive into our programming articles for insights and tips. Covering a range of topics, they're perfect for learners at any level eager to expand their knowledge.

Dive into our programming articles for insights and tips.

Articles

How to seamlessly Roll Auth into your React App using Firebase Authentication

Have you ever wondered how apps make those 

 that instantly capture your attention? Whether it’s buttons gliding across the screen or 

, animations make interfaces engaging. With Framer Motion, you can easily add

 to your React apps without being an animation expert.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through creating eye-catching animations, from simple transitions to complex gestures. 

 component, animation properties, and variants.

: Use animation controls and gesture animations to enhance user interactions.

: Learn best practices for performance optimization and accessibility considerations.

: Develop reusable animation hooks to manage complex animation logic.

Integrate Error Handling and Loading States

 to handle  loading and error states gracefully.

Basic Knowledge of React (creating custom hooks)

Framer Motion is a popular open-source animation library from Framer for React that allows developers to manipulate DOM elements e.g enables them create and manage complex animations and transitions within apps.It's an excellent alternative to making complex CSS or Javascript animations.

 Describes adding interactivity with gestures like drag, hover, and tap, which can trigger animations.

  Introduces reusable animation states with variants, a powerful tool                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        for applying animations to multiple elements.

 Focuses on how animations are defined through initial and animate props, directly targeting the animation states.

 Discusses seamless animations during layout changes, providing an advanced concept for dynamic UIs.

Explains the ability to control timing and easing of animations using the transition prop.

 allowing you to animate them using initial and animate props.

Initial State: The initial prop defines the starting point of the animation. In this case, the motion.div will start with an opacity of 0 (completely invisible) when it first appears.

The animate prop defines the final state the element will animate to. Here, the motion.div will transition from its initial state (opacity 0) to an opacity of 1 (fully visible).

 The exit prop defines how the element will animate out when it’s removed from the DOM. In this case, when the motion.div is unmounted, it will fade out (go back to opacity 0).

This controls how long the animation takes to complete. The transition prop here specifies that the animation will last 2.3 seconds, whether it's fading in or fading out.

  allows components to animate out when they're removed from the React tree/DOM.

It works hand in hand with the motion components 

components. Each component has its own animation behavior, and these behaviors are controlled by the 



The A form (motion.div) that fades in from below.

 This defines the animation states for the form as a whole.



  shifts the form 50 pixels down, so it starts out off-screen.
Visible State:



  fades the form in, making it fully visible.


  moves the form back to its original position, making it appear from below.
transition:


This controls the time it takes for the animation to complete (0.6 seconds).


 This delays the animation of child elements (like input fields) by 0.1 seconds, creating a smooth cascading effect.

 will fade in and move up from its starting point when the component is rendered. It will 

 and the children (input fields) will animate in a staggered manner thanks to the 

Gestures allow you to add interactive animations that respond to user input, like hovering, tapping, dragging, and scrolling.

This property triggers animations when the user hovers over an element.

This is commonly provides feedback, like enlarging a button or changing its appearance when a user hovers over it.

The element scales up (enlarges) to 1.1 times its original size when the user hovers

 property triggers an animation when the user taps or clicks on an element.

The element shrinks (scales down to 0.9) when the user taps or clicks on it, simulating a pressed state.


Animate beyond your React-Forms with Framer-motion

Ever thought about launching your own application over a weekend or rapidly shipping your SaaS product? Stripe makes it easy to handle payments, and combining it with SendGrid can streamline sending email notifications to users after successful transactions. In this blog,Weel use React to consumer our srtie backend server configured using the Two Third party APIs.

Integrating Material Tailwind for UI components

 Handling user bookings and displaying notification

Configuration and Setup for project Environment

2.   Add tailwind to your postCSS configuration

 function is a utility provided by Material Tailwind to help integrate Tailwind CSS with Material Tailwind components seamlessly.

7.  Within the styles folder lets add our tailwind directives input.css file and its 

 to ensure that whenever non-existent routes are navigates they fall back to this page

 in our package.json within the scripts object 

Within the src/component create the following files using the cli;

Task 1.  Declare  all the imports and  the states to be used within our componnent           



The function first makes a POST request to the backend server to create a 

( necessary for handling payments) a charged (bill)is attached to the request
The server responds with a sessionId, which is used to generate a 

 received from the server, the function constructs a payment link (stripePaymentLink). This link will direct the user to the Stripe-hosted payment page.





The function then makes a POST request to the backend server to send an email to the user.
The request is sent to 

with details such as the user's email, the service booked, the start time, the bill amount, and the payment link.


Task 3 . Handling Boooking Function and the Dialog Functionality

component for entering the email, preferred service time in minutes.

 component triggers the handleBooking function when clicked. If the isLoading state is true, the button displays a loading spinner.





The Dialog component displays a success message when the booking is successful.

When we submiit through the Button our dialog Works Hurray!

 to load Stripe and redirect the user to the checkout session based on a session ID provided in the URL parameters.

 is used to load the Stripe JavaScript library with the provided publishable key.


The component defines an asynchronous function redirectToCheckout that uses the loaded Stripe instance to redirect the user to the Stripe Checkout page.

Upon receiving the Emaill click the link and Get redirected to the Stripe hosted page 

Stripe Payments Made Easy: Checkout and Email Automation with SendGrid Part 2

Most applications have embraced dark mode to meet diverse preferences and user needs among other benefits. A theme switcher element provides users with the ability to switch dark and light themes. By offering a theme switcher, applications can accommodate a wider range of users and ensure that everyone can comfortably use the app regardless of their visual needs.

Before diving into the demo it is important to have the following:

We shall scaffold our React application using 

Install Tailwind and its peer dependencies

Add the Tailwind directives into your index.css file by including the appropriate @tailwind directives for each layer.

After the project cleanup, we shall create different folders to support the dark/light mode feature.

We will use context API  to ensure we can pass data through the component tree without having to pass down props manually at every level. In this case, the useThemeContext provider ensures all the components have access to the current theme mode based on the user's selection.

: Creates a new context with an initial value of 

. It's typed according to the ThemeContextType

: This functional component serves as the provider for the theme context. 

 function to toggle between light and dark themes. 

 element to apply dark mode styles globally. The dark class is provided by Tailwind to handle dark mode. This shall be explained further as we proceed.

 object containing the current theme and the 

The useTheme custom hook defines an easier for components to consume the theme context. 

It also provides a way to handle potential errors.

We wrap the App component with the theme Provider so that every component can access the store context.

We also import Navbar in the main component to ensure it is part of the main layout and rendered alongside other components.

Tailwind has support for dark mode that lets you style your site differently when dark mode is enabled. We will use the 'selector' strategy to manually toggle between light and dark mode. 

The 'dark' class gets applied whenever it is present in the HTML tree structure.

In our index.css file, we will target the body element whenever the Tailwind dark mode property is activated. This styles the body of the webpage based on the defined styles.

This component has a theme switcher that allows users to switch between dark and light modes according to their preferences.

In the App component, there's a product component displaying a catalog of products. It mimics an e-commerce product catalog, is updated whenever the theme switcher is toggled.

The product data has been defined in a constants file. Here we import a Card component that takes in a product prop after mapping through the product list.

The Card appearance is modified by the dark mode class. 

Github repo: https://github.com/kodaschool/theme-switcher-react

How to build a theme switcher in React with context API

Hooks are functions that let you “hook into” React state and lifecycle features from function components. They were introduced in React 16.8 version. Hooks allow you to use state and other React features without writing a class. Hooks provide a more concise and elegant way to manage stateful logic and side effects within your components. This makes your code clean and easier to maintain.

Hooks can only be called inside the body of a function component.

Hooks should be called at the top level in the body of a function component and a custom hook.

Hooks should not be called in event handlers.

Hooks should not be called after the return statement.

React offers different ways of using hooks, allowing developers to use them based on the application’s needs. This approach enhances code reusability and readability, streamlining the development process for complex applications.

useState is a React Hook that lets you add a 

 to your component. The useState returns an array that takes in two parameters.

state — This is the initial value of the state that can be any type.

setter function — The function is used to update state.

useReducer is a hook that is used to handle complex state manipulations and updates when certain actions are dispatched. When dealing with complex state, useReducer is preferred over useState.The useReducer hook takes in two parameters which are the 

. The value of the initial state could be anything depending on what you want to initialize.

The above example is used for complex forms to handle multiple form fields in a structured way. The 

 makes the state transitions and centralizes the state logic, making the component easier to manage.

 is a hook that lets you read and subscribe to context from your component. The 

 hook is used for managing and passing state throughout your component tree without having to explicitly pass props down through every component. This hook is part of React's Context API, which allows you to share values like user information across all levels of your application without prop drilling.

The provider component supplies data to any component that needs it at any level of the app tree.

The useContext hook reads the context value accessed by any component.

The provider wraps the whole application to make the context available throughout the application at any level.

 stores a mutable value that does not cause re-render when updated. It allows the persistence of values between renders. This hook makes it possible to access DOM nodes within a functional component.

useEffect allows us to perform side effects on functional components. Side effects include data fetching, directly, manipulating the DOM, and subscribing to events such as resize and keyboard events. 

The useEffect takes in two arguments, the function that contains the side effect and an array of dependencies. The useEffect runs whenever the array ode dependency changes. If the array of dependency is empty, the effect will only run once after the initial render.

This custom hook encapsulates the useEffect to fetch data, making it reusable across multiple components. The data is fetched again when the component mounts or when the URL changes.

Exploring Advanced React hooks

React Query is not a data-fetching library. When fetching data using the inbuilt fetch or Axios, a promise is produced. React Query relies on this promise to process the data.

If React Query is not a data-fetching library,  what exactly does it do?

React Query is a library that is used to manage asynchronous server state out of the box and can be customized as the application grows. It is designed to simplify the data fetching process and caching in applications. It provides a straightforward way to manage the server data and keep it in sync with the user interface.

How does React Query compare with the old way of Data fetching?

React Query differs from the traditional method of data fetching using 

 primarily in its approach and features. While both methods enable data fetching within React applications, React Query offers several advantages over the old way. React Query abstracts away much of the boilerplate code and complexity involved in managing data fetching manually with 

. It provides a cleaner and more concise API, reducing the need for developers to write custom logic for handling loading states, error handling, caching, and data prefetching.

 for declaratively fetching and mutating data. This simplifies the process of defining and executing queries, reducing boilerplate code.

: React Query automatically caches query results, optimizing performance by reducing unnecessary network requests. Cached data can be reused across components and shared between different parts of the application.

: React Query offers built-in mechanisms for invalidating and refetching queries based on various triggers such as manual invocation, time intervals, or specific events. This ensures that data remains up-to-date and accurate.

: React Query supports optimistic updates, allowing UI changes to be immediately reflected in the application interface before the actual mutation operation completes. This provides a smoother user experience by reducing perceived latency.

: React Query includes features for handling pagination and infinite loading scenarios, making it easy to fetch large datasets incrementally without overwhelming the user or consuming excessive resources.

: React Query supports background data fetching, enabling queries to be executed in the background without blocking the main thread. This helps improve performance and responsiveness, especially in scenarios involving complex data-fetching operations

Getting started with React Query - (Show me the code)

Let’s explore a straightforward example to demonstrate how easy it is to begin using React Query. 

After the tanstack library is installed in our application. Create a provider and a client to use React Query. The 

 is a component provided by React Query that serves as a context provider for the React Query client instance. This component wraps your application and makes the client instance available to all components within its subtree via React’s context API.

React Query provides functionality for managing server states, achieved through the use of the useQuery hook. This hook is utilized for fetching data from your API, returning an object comprising the query’s status (loading, error, or success), the retrieved data, and methods for data refetching.

To understand how React Query performs data fetching, we will query a collection of posts from 

. Here’s an example of fetching data from the RESTful API using React Query and TypeScript:

In the above example, the useQuery hook is used to retrieve the posts and handle loading and error states. The 

 function fetches the data using Axios. If data is loading or an error occurs, a message is displayed. Otherwise, the posts are rendered as a list.

Caching is managed by the useQuery hook. When you invoke useQuery with a key (in this instance, ‘posts’) and a fetch function (getPosts).

React Query executes the fetch operation and stores the outcome in a cache. The key you supply (‘posts’) serves as the identifier for this cache. If useQuery is invoked again with the same key while the data remains in the cache, React Query will retrieve the cached data instead of initiating a fresh fetch.

Executing this in your browser will result in the display of the list of post titles.

React Query is an asynchronous state manager.

 uniquely identifies your query, so as long you call the query with the same key in two different places, they will get the same data.

Its smooth compatibility with TypeScript guarantees type security and improves the overall development journey.

Utilizing React Query empowers developers to create high-performing applications, delivering a seamless and interactive user interface.

 in your next project to unlock its full potential and elevate your application development process.

react Articles

How to seamlessly Roll Auth into your React App using Firebase Authentication

Animate beyond your React-Forms with Framer-motion

Stripe Payments Made Easy: Checkout and Email Automation with SendGrid Part 2

How to build a theme switcher in React with context API

Exploring Advanced React hooks

Getting started with React Query

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