Build a User Management App with RedwoodJS

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a basic user management app. The app authenticates and identifies the user, stores their profile information in the database, and allows the user to log in, update their profile details, and upload a profile photo. The app uses:

Supabase Database - a Postgres database for storing your user data and Row Level Security so data is protected and users can only access their own information.
Supabase Auth - users log in through magic links sent to their email (without having to set up passwords).
Supabase Storage - users can upload a profile photo.

note

If you get stuck while working through this guide, refer to the full example on GitHub.

About RedwoodJS#

A Redwood application is split into two parts: a frontend and a backend. This is represented as two node projects within a single monorepo.

The frontend project is called web and the backend project is called api. For clarity, we will refer to these in prose as "sides", i.e. the "web side" and the "api side". They are separate projects because code on the web side will end up running in the user's browser while code on the api side will run on a server somewhere.

note

Important: When this guide refers to "API", that means the Supabase API and when it refers to "api side", that means the RedwoodJS api side.

The api side is an implementation of a GraphQL API. The business logic is organized into "services" that represent their own internal API and can be called both from external GraphQL requests and other internal services.

The web side is built with React. Redwood's router makes it simple to map URL paths to React "Page" components (and automatically code-split your app on each route). Pages may contain a "Layout" component to wrap content. They also contain "Cells" and regular React components. Cells allow you to declaratively manage the lifecycle of a component that fetches and displays data.

For the sake of consistency with the other framework tutorials, we'll build this app a little differently than normal. We won't use Prisma to connect to the Supabase Postgres database or Prisma migrations as one typically might in a Redwood app. Instead, we'll rely on the Supabase client to do some of the work on the web side and use the client again on the api side to do data fetching as well.

That means you will want to refrain from running any yarn rw prisma migrate commands and also double check your build commands on deployment to ensure Prisma won't reset your database. Prisma currently doesn't support cross-schema foreign keys, so introspecting the schema fails due to how your Supabase public schema references the auth.users.

Project setup#

Before we start building we're going to set up our Database and API. This is as simple as starting a new Project in Supabase and then creating a "schema" inside the database.

Create a project#

Create a new project in the Supabase Dashboard.
Enter your project details.
Wait for the new database to launch.

Set up the database schema#

Now we are going to set up the database schema. We can use the "User Management Starter" quickstart in the SQL Editor, or you can just copy/paste the SQL from below and run it yourself.

Go to the SQL Editor page in the Dashboard.
Click User Management Starter.
Click Run.

note

You can easily pull the database schema down to your local project by running the following commands:

supabase link --project-ref <project-id>
# You can get <project-id> from your project's dashboard URL: https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/<project-id>
supabase db pull

Get the API Keys#

Now that you've created some database tables, you are ready to insert data using the auto-generated API. We just need to get the Project URL and anon key from the API settings.

Go to the API Settings page in the Dashboard.
Find your Project URL, anon, and service_role keys on this page.

Building the App#

Let's start building the RedwoodJS app from scratch.

note

RedwoodJS requires Node.js >= 14.x <= 16.x and Yarn >= 1.15.

Make sure you have installed yarn since RedwoodJS relies on it to manage its packages in workspaces for its web and api "sides".

Initialize a RedwoodJS app#

We can use Create Redwood App command to initialize an app called supabase-redwoodjs:

yarn create redwood-app supabase-redwoodjs
cd supabase-redwoodjs

While the app is installing, you should see:

✔ Creating Redwood app
  ✔ Checking node and yarn compatibility
  ✔ Creating directory 'supabase-redwoodjs'
✔ Installing packages
  ✔ Running 'yarn install'... (This could take a while)
✔ Convert TypeScript files to JavaScript
✔ Generating types
Thanks for trying out Redwood!

Then let's install the only additional dependency supabase-js by running the setup auth command:

yarn redwood setup auth supabase

When prompted:

Overwrite existing /api/src/lib/auth.[jt]s?

Say, yes and it will setup the Supabase client in your app and also provide hooks used with Supabase authentication.

✔ Generating auth lib...
  ✔ Successfully wrote file `./api/src/lib/auth.js`
  ✔ Adding auth config to web...
  ✔ Adding auth config to GraphQL API...
  ✔ Adding required web packages...
  ✔ Installing packages...
  ✔ One more thing...
  You will need to add your Supabase URL (SUPABASE_URL), public API KEY,
  and JWT SECRET (SUPABASE_KEY, and SUPABASE_JWT_SECRET) to your .env file.

Next, we want to save the environment variables in a .env. We need the API URL as well as the anon and jwt_secret keys that you copied earlier.

.env

SUPABASE_URL=YOUR_SUPABASE_URL
SUPABASE_KEY=YOUR_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY
SUPABASE_JWT_SECRET=YOUR_SUPABASE_JWT_SECRET

And finally, you will also need to save just the web side environment variables to the redwood.toml.

redwood.toml

[web]
  title = "Supabase Redwood Tutorial"
  port = 8910
  apiProxyPath = "/.redwood/functions"
  includeEnvironmentVariables = ["SUPABASE_URL", "SUPABASE_KEY"]
[api]
  port = 8911
[browser]
  open = true

These variables will be exposed on the browser, and that's completely fine. They allow your web app to initialize the Supabase client with your public anon key since we have Row Level Security enabled on our Database.

You'll see these being used to configure your Supabase client in web/src/App.js:

web/src/App.js

// ... Redwood imports
import { AuthProvider } from '@redwoodjs/auth'
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'
// ...
const supabase = createClient(process.env.SUPABASE_URL, process.env.SUPABASE_KEY)
const App = () => (
  <FatalErrorBoundary page={FatalErrorPage}>
    <RedwoodProvider titleTemplate="%PageTitle | %AppTitle">
      <AuthProvider client={supabase} type="supabase">
        <RedwoodApolloProvider>
          <Routes />
        </RedwoodApolloProvider>
      </AuthProvider>
    </RedwoodProvider>
  </FatalErrorBoundary>
)
export default App

And one optional step is to update the CSS file web/src/index.css to make the app look nice. You can find the full contents of this file here.

Start RedwoodJS and your first Page#

Let's test our setup at the moment by starting up the app:

yarn rw dev

note

rw is an alias for redwood, as in yarn rw to run Redwood CLI commands.

You should see a "Welcome to RedwoodJS" page and a message about not having any pages yet.

So, let's create a "home" page:

yarn rw generate page home /
✔ Generating page files...
  ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.stories.js`
  ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.test.js`
  ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.js`
✔ Updating routes file...
✔ Generating types ...

note

The / is important here as it creates a root level route.

You can stop the dev server if you want; to see your changes, just be sure to run yarn rw dev again.

You should see the Home page route in web/src/Routes.js:

web/src/Routes.js

import { Router, Route } from '@redwoodjs/router'
const Routes = () => {
  return (
    <Router>
      <Route path="/" page={HomePage} name="home" />
      <Route notfound page={NotFoundPage} />
    </Router>
  )
}
export default Routes

Let's set up a Redwood component to manage logins and sign ups. We'll use Magic Links, so users can sign in with their email without using passwords.

yarn rw g component auth
  ✔ Generating component files...
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Auth/Auth.test.js`
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Auth/Auth.stories.js`
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Auth/Auth.js`

Now, update the Auth.js component to contain:

/web/src/components/Auth/Auth.js

import { useState } from 'react'
import { useAuth } from '@redwoodjs/auth'
const Auth = () => {
  const { logIn } = useAuth()
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false)
  const [email, setEmail] = useState('')
  const handleLogin = async (email) => {
    try {
      setLoading(true)
      const { error } = await logIn({ email })
      if (error) throw error
      alert('Check your email for the login link!')
    } catch (error) {
      alert(error.error_description || error.message)
    } finally {
      setLoading(false)
    }
  }
  return (
    <div className="row flex-center flex">
      <div className="col-6 form-widget">
        <h1 className="header">Supabase + RedwoodJS</h1>
        <p className="description">Sign in via magic link with your email below</p>
        <div>
          <input
            className="inputField"
            type="email"
            placeholder="Your email"
            value={email}
            onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)}
          />
        </div>
        <div>
          <button
            onClick={(e) => {
              e.preventDefault()
              handleLogin(email)
            }}
            className={'button block'}
            disabled={loading}
          >
            {loading ? <span>Loading</span> : <span>Send magic link</span>}
          </button>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}
export default Auth

Set up an Account component#

After a user is signed in we can allow them to edit their profile details and manage their account.

Let's create a new component for that called Account.js.

yarn rw g component account
  ✔ Generating component files...
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Account/Account.test.js`
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Account/Account.stories.js`
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Account/Account.js`

And then update the file to contain:

web/src/components/Account/Account.js

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react'
import { useAuth } from '@redwoodjs/auth'
const Account = () => {
  const { client: supabase, currentUser, logOut } = useAuth()
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true)
  const [username, setUsername] = useState(null)
  const [website, setWebsite] = useState(null)
  const [avatar_url, setAvatarUrl] = useState(null)
  useEffect(() => {
    getProfile()
  }, [supabase.auth.session])
  async function getProfile() {
    try {
      setLoading(true)
      const user = supabase.auth.user()
      let { data, error, status } = await supabase
        .from('profiles')
        .select(`username, website, avatar_url`)
        .eq('id', user.id)
        .single()
      if (error && status !== 406) {
        throw error
      }
      if (data) {
        setUsername(data.username)
        setWebsite(data.website)
        setAvatarUrl(data.avatar_url)
      }
    } catch (error) {
      alert(error.message)
    } finally {
      setLoading(false)
    }
  }
  async function updateProfile({ username, website, avatar_url }) {
    try {
      setLoading(true)
      const user = supabase.auth.user()
      const updates = {
        id: user.id,
        username,
        website,
        avatar_url,
        updated_at: new Date(),
      }
      let { error } = await supabase.from('profiles').upsert(updates, {
        returning: 'minimal', // Don't return the value after inserting
      })
      if (error) {
        throw error
      }
      alert('Updated profile!')
    } catch (error) {
      alert(error.message)
    } finally {
      setLoading(false)
    }
  }
  return (
    <div className="row flex-center flex">
      <div className="col-6 form-widget">
        <h1 className="header">Supabase + RedwoodJS</h1>
        <p className="description">Your profile</p>
        <div className="form-widget">
          <div>
            <label htmlFor="email">Email</label>
            <input id="email" type="text" value={currentUser.email} disabled />
          </div>
          <div>
            <label htmlFor="username">Name</label>
            <input
              id="username"
              type="text"
              value={username || ''}
              onChange={(e) => setUsername(e.target.value)}
            />
          </div>
          <div>
            <label htmlFor="website">Website</label>
            <input
              id="website"
              type="url"
              value={website || ''}
              onChange={(e) => setWebsite(e.target.value)}
            />
          </div>
          <div>
            <button
              className="button primary block"
              onClick={() => updateProfile({ username, website, avatar_url })}
              disabled={loading}
            >
              {loading ? 'Loading ...' : 'Update'}
            </button>
          </div>
          <div>
            <button className="button block" onClick={() => logOut()}>
              Sign Out
            </button>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}
export default Account

You'll see the use of useAuth() several times. Redwood's useAuth hook provides convenient ways to access logIn, logOut, currentUser, and access the supabase authenticate client. We'll use it to get an instance of the supabase client to interact with your API.

Update Home Page#

Now that we have all the components in place, let's update your HomePage page to use them:

web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.js

import { useAuth } from '@redwoodjs/auth'
import { MetaTags } from '@redwoodjs/web'
import Account from 'src/components/Account'
import Auth from 'src/components/Auth'
const HomePage = () => {
  const { isAuthenticated } = useAuth()
  return (
    <>
      <MetaTags title="Welcome" />
      {!isAuthenticated ? <Auth /> : <Account />}
    </>
  )
}
export default HomePage

What we're doing here is showing the sign in form if you aren't logged in and your account profile if you are.

Launch!#

Once that's done, run this in a terminal window to launch the dev server:

yarn rw dev

And then open the browser to localhost:8910 and you should see the completed app.

Bonus: Profile photos#

Every Supabase project is configured with Storage for managing large files like photos and videos.

Let's create an avatar for the user so that they can upload a profile photo. We can start by creating a new component:

yarn rw g component avatar
  ✔ Generating component files...
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Avatar/Avatar.test.js`
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Avatar/Avatar.stories.js`
    ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/components/Avatar/Avatar.js`

Now, update your Avatar component to contain the following widget:

web/src/components/Avatar/Avatar.js

import { useEffect, useState } from 'react'
import { useAuth } from '@redwoodjs/auth'
const Avatar = ({ url, size, onUpload }) => {
  const { client: supabase } = useAuth()
  const [avatarUrl, setAvatarUrl] = useState(null)
  const [uploading, setUploading] = useState(false)
  useEffect(() => {
    if (url) downloadImage(url)
  }, [url])
  async function downloadImage(path) {
    try {
      const { data, error } = await supabase.storage.from('avatars').download(path)
      if (error) {
        throw error
      }
      const url = URL.createObjectURL(data)
      setAvatarUrl(url)
    } catch (error) {
      console.log('Error downloading image: ', error.message)
    }
  }
  async function uploadAvatar(event) {
    try {
      setUploading(true)
      if (!event.target.files || event.target.files.length === 0) {
        throw new Error('You must select an image to upload.')
      }
      const file = event.target.files[0]
      const fileExt = file.name.split('.').pop()
      const fileName = `${Math.random()}.${fileExt}`
      const filePath = `${fileName}`
      let { error: uploadError } = await supabase.storage.from('avatars').upload(filePath, file)
      if (uploadError) {
        throw uploadError
      }
      onUpload(filePath)
    } catch (error) {
      alert(error.message)
    } finally {
      setUploading(false)
    }
  }
  return (
    <div>
      {avatarUrl ? (
        <img
          src={avatarUrl}
          alt="Avatar"
          className="avatar image"
          style={{ height: size, width: size }}
        />
      ) : (
        <div className="avatar no-image" style={{ height: size, width: size }} />
      )}
      <div style={{ width: size }}>
        <label className="button primary block" htmlFor="single">
          {uploading ? 'Uploading ...' : 'Upload'}
        </label>
        <input
          style={{
            visibility: 'hidden',
            position: 'absolute',
          }}
          type="file"
          id="single"
          accept="image/*"
          onChange={uploadAvatar}
          disabled={uploading}
        />
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}
export default Avatar

And then we can add the widget to the Account component:

web/src/components/Account/Account.js

// Import the new component
import Avatar from 'src/components/Avatar'
// ...
return (
  <div className="form-widget">
    {/* Add to the body */}
    <Avatar
      url={avatar_url}
      size={150}
      onUpload={(url) => {
        setAvatarUrl(url)
        updateProfile({ username, website, avatar_url: url })
      }}
    />
    {/* ... */}
  </div>
)

Storage management#

If you upload additional profile photos, they'll accumulate in the avatars bucket because of their random names with only the latest being referenced from public.profiles and the older versions getting orphaned.

To automatically remove obsolete storage objects, extend the database triggers. Note that it is not sufficient to delete the objects from the storage.objects table because that would orphan and leak the actual storage objects in the S3 backend. Instead, invoke the storage API within Postgres via the http extension.

Enable the http extension for the extensions schema in the Dashboard. Then, define the following SQL functions in the SQL Editor to delete storage objects via the API:

create or replace function delete_storage_object(bucket text, object text, out status int, out content text)
returns record
language 'plpgsql'
security definer
as $$
declare
  project_url text := '<YOURPROJECTURL>';
  service_role_key text := '<YOURSERVICEROLEKEY>'; --  full access needed
  url text := project_url||'/storage/v1/object/'||bucket||'/'||object;
begin
  select
      into status, content
           result.status::int, result.content::text
      FROM extensions.http((
    'DELETE',
    url,
    ARRAY[extensions.http_header('authorization','Bearer '||service_role_key)],
    NULL,
    NULL)::extensions.http_request) as result;
end;
$$;
create or replace function delete_avatar(avatar_url text, out status int, out content text)
returns record
language 'plpgsql'
security definer
as $$
begin
  select
      into status, content
           result.status, result.content
      from public.delete_storage_object('avatars', avatar_url) as result;
end;
$$;

Next, add a trigger that removes any obsolete avatar whenever the profile is updated or deleted:

create or replace function delete_old_avatar()
returns trigger
language 'plpgsql'
security definer
as $$
declare
  status int;
  content text;
  avatar_name text;
begin
  if coalesce(old.avatar_url, '') <> ''
      and (tg_op = 'DELETE' or (old.avatar_url <> new.avatar_url)) then
    -- extract avatar name
    avatar_name := old.avatar_url;
    select
      into status, content
      result.status, result.content
      from public.delete_avatar(avatar_name) as result;
    if status <> 200 then
      raise warning 'Could not delete avatar: % %', status, content;
    end if;
  end if;
  if tg_op = 'DELETE' then
    return old;
  end if;
  return new;
end;
$$;
create trigger before_profile_changes
  before update of avatar_url or delete on public.profiles
  for each row execute function public.delete_old_avatar();

Finally, delete the public.profile row before a user is deleted. If this step is omitted, you won't be able to delete users without first manually deleting their avatar image.

create or replace function delete_old_profile()
returns trigger
language 'plpgsql'
security definer
as $$
begin
  delete from public.profiles where id = old.id;
  return old;
end;
$$;
create trigger before_delete_user
  before delete on auth.users
  for each row execute function public.delete_old_profile();

At this stage you have a fully functional application!

Build a User Management App with RedwoodJS

About RedwoodJS#

Project setup#

Create a project#

Set up the database schema#

Get the API Keys#

Building the App#

Initialize a RedwoodJS app#

Start RedwoodJS and your first Page#

Set up an Account component#

Update Home Page#

Launch!#

Bonus: Profile photos#

Create an upload widget#

Add the new widget#

Storage management#

See also#

Build a User Management App with RedwoodJS

About RedwoodJS#

Project setup#

Create a project#

Set up the database schema#

Get the API Keys#

Building the App#

Initialize a RedwoodJS app#

Start RedwoodJS and your first Page#

Set up a Login component#

Set up an Account component#

Update Home Page#

Launch!#

Bonus: Profile photos#

Create an upload widget#

Add the new widget#

Storage management#

See also#