Implement user authentication (browser)

User authentication (formerly ArcGIS identity) generates a short-lived access token, authorizing your application to access location services, content, and resources on behalf of a logged in ArcGIS user.

The temporary token from user authentication is created using the OAuth 2.0 protocol. It authorizes your application to act on the user's behalf without revealing their secure password to your application. If your application will access your users' secure content in ArcGIS or if you plan to distribute your application through ArcGIS Marketplace, you must use user authentication.

This tutorial demonstrates using the OAuth2.0 serverless web application workflow to implement the ArcGISIdentityManager class in ArcGIS REST JS and create an identity for a browser application.

Prerequisites

You need an account to register a new OAuth 2.0 application. If you do not have an ArcGIS account you can sign up for a free ArcGIS Developer account.
Create and register a new OAuth 2.0 application and obtain its Client ID.
Update your registered application to specify the Redirect URLs to use for authentication, in the format "https://<server>[:port]" or http://my-arcgis-app:/auth. For example, if you are running your application on https://localhost:8080 add https://localhost:8080/authenticate.html, to the list of redirect URLs. You will create the authenticate.html page later in this tutorial.

To learn more, visit the Register your application tutorial.

Steps

Scaffold HTML

Begin by creating a basic HTML page containing a button directing the user to the authorization page or pop-up. This will be the primary application page.

Create an HTML file to be used for your application and add references to the ArcGIS RestJS library.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>ArcGIS REST JS Browser OAuth2</title>

    <script type="module">
      import { ArcGISIdentityManager } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4.0.0';

    </script>

  </body>
</html>

Import the Bootstrap CSS framework and add Sign in and Sign Out buttons, as well as a sessionInfo area to place user information.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>ArcGIS REST JS Browser OAuth2</title>

    <link
      rel="stylesheet"
      href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css"
      integrity="sha384-BVYiiSIFeK1dGmJRAkycuHAHRg32OmUcww7on3RYdg4Va+PmSTsz/K68vbdEjh4u"
      crossorigin="anonymous"
    />
    <style>
      body {
        font-family: monospace;
        color: black;
        font-size: 20px;
      }
      pre {
        overflow: auto;
        padding: 1rem;
      }

      .col-xs-12 {
        margin-top: 10%;
      }

      #withPopupButton,
      #signOutButton {
        font-size: 20px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="app-wrapper">
      <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
          <div class="col-xs-12">
            <!-- Event listeners planned to be added to these buttons. -->
            <button class="btn btn-primary btn-block" id="withPopupButton">Sign In</button>
          </div>
        </div>

        <div class="row">
          <div class="col-xs-12 text-center">
            <p id="sessionInfo" class="info-panel">
              <!-- Information will be injected here. -->
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>

        <div class="row">
          <div class="col-xs-12 text-center">
            <!-- Event listeners will be added to these buttons. -->
            <button class="btn btn-primary btn-block btn-warning" id="signOutButton">Sign Out</button>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

    <script type="module">
      import { ArcGISIdentityManager } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4.0.0';

    </script>

  </body>
</html>

Define authentication variables

Go to the ArcGIS Developer dashboard > OAuth2.0 tab and copy your application's Client ID.
Create session and clientId elements. Set the clientId with the Client ID copied from the dashboard.

Set the redirect_uri to the redirect URI you configured for your application.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
    <script type="module">
      import { ArcGISIdentityManager } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4.0.0';

      let session = null;
      const clientId = "CLIENT_ID";
      const redirectUri = window.location.origin + "/authenticate.html";

    </script>
Expand

Create a callback page

Once the user is authorized, the access token must be retrieved and passed from the pop-up to the main application page the ArcGISIdentityManager.completeOAuth2 method will automatically handle this.

Open an editor and create an authenticate.html file with references to the ArcGIS REST JS library.

authenticate.html
Use dark colors for code blocks
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>ArcGIS Rest JS OAuth redirect</title>
  </head>
  <body>

    <script type="module">
      import { ArcGISIdentityManager } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4.0.0';

    </script>

  </body>
</html>

Set the same clientId and redirectUri parameters that you used in the define authentication variables step.

authenticate.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
    <script type="module">
      import { ArcGISIdentityManager } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@esri/arcgis-rest-request@4.0.0';

      const clientId = "CLIENT_ID";
      const redirectUri = window.location.origin + "/authenticate.html";

    </script>
Expand

Call the ArcGISIdentityManager.completeOAuth2 method. This will get the access token, pass it back to the main application page and close the popup window.

authenticate.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      const clientId = "CLIENT_ID";
      const redirectUri = window.location.origin + "/authenticate.html";

      ArcGISIdentityManager.completeOAuth2({
        clientId,
        redirectUri
      })
Expand

Add event listeners

With the primary application page and callback page configured, you can implement the basic sign-in process by adding event listeners to the buttons.

Save authenticate.html and return to your first HTML file.

Add an event listener:

When the user clicks the Sign in button, call the beginOAuth2 method.
Set the clientId and redirectUri options.
Update the session once the user successfully logs in.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      let session = null;
      const clientId = "CLIENT_ID";
      const redirectUri = window.location.origin + "/authenticate.html";

      document.getElementById("withPopupButton").addEventListener("click", (event) => {
        // Begin an OAuth2 login using a popup.
        ArcGISIdentityManager.beginOAuth2({
          clientId: clientId,
          redirectUri: redirectUri,
          popup: true
        })
          .then((newSession) => {
            // Upon a successful login, update the session with the new session.
            session = newSession;
            console.log(session);
            updateSessionInfo(session);
          })
          .catch((error) => {
            console.log(error);
          });
        event.preventDefault();
      });
Expand

Add an event listener to clear the session when the user signs out.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      document.getElementById("withPopupButton").addEventListener("click", (event) => {
        // Begin an OAuth2 login using a popup.
        ArcGISIdentityManager.beginOAuth2({
          clientId: clientId,
          redirectUri: redirectUri,
          popup: true
        })
          .then((newSession) => {
            // Upon a successful login, update the session with the new session.
            session = newSession;
            console.log(session);
            updateSessionInfo(session);
          })
          .catch((error) => {
            console.log(error);
          });
        event.preventDefault();
      });

      document.getElementById("signOutButton").addEventListener("click", (event) => {
        event.preventDefault();
        // call the signOut method to invalidate the token.
        session.signOut().then(()=>{
          session = null; // Clear the session from memory.
          localStorage.removeItem("__ARCGIS_REST_USER_SESSION__");
          updateSessionInfo();
        });
      });
Expand

Create a session from local storage

ArcGIS REST JS does not include tools for persisting a session after retrieving session information. You must decide how to implement persisting the session and specify where the user goes after they authorize your application.

Create a serializedSession function that checks if there is a session in local storage. You can use the ArcGISIdentityManager.deserialize method to parse the serializedSession data.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      let session = null;
      const clientId = "CLIENT_ID";
      const redirectUri = window.location.origin + "/authenticate.html";

      const serializedSession = localStorage.getItem("__ARCGIS_REST_USER_SESSION__"); // Check to see if there is a serialized session in local storage.

      if (serializedSession !== null && serializedSession !== "undefined") {
        session = ArcGISIdentityManager.deserialize(serializedSession);
      }
Expand

Update session info

Create an updateSessionInfo function that adds the username to sessionInfo if the user is signed in. If not, ask the user to log in with their credentials.

index.html
Expand
Use dark colors for code blocks
      const serializedSession = localStorage.getItem("__ARCGIS_REST_USER_SESSION__"); // Check to see if there is a serialized session in local storage.

      if (serializedSession !== null && serializedSession !== "undefined") {
        session = ArcGISIdentityManager.deserialize(serializedSession);
      }

      function updateSessionInfo(session) {
        let sessionInfo = document.getElementById("sessionInfo");

        if (session) {
          sessionInfo.classList.remove("bg-info");
          sessionInfo.classList.add("bg-success");
          sessionInfo.innerHTML = "Logged in as " + session.username;
          localStorage.setItem("__ARCGIS_REST_USER_SESSION__", session.serialize());
        } else {
          sessionInfo.classList.remove("bg-success");
          sessionInfo.classList.add("bg-info");
          sessionInfo.innerHTML = "Log in to start a session.";
        }
      }

      updateSessionInfo(session);

Expand

Run the app

Run the application and navigate to your localhost, for example: https://localhost:8080. You will see the sign in page:

When you click Sign in, a pop-up prompts you to enter your credentials. Upon successful authorization, you are redirected to the home page where your username is displayed.

What's next

Learn how to use additional ArcGIS location services in these tutorials:

Edit feature data

Add, update, and delete data in a hosted feature layer.

Implement user authentication (Server)

Learn how to implement user authentication server-side using ArcGIS REST JS API

Get layer metadata

Access the name, description, type and other properties of a hosted layer.