I am working on Firebase application ( Firebase version 4.1.3 )
My health care related application is made for dependent group of people such as children and seniors. However, most of my users are independent group of people age around 18-55. Most of my users use my application for their seniors/children. They need to create account for each of their family seniors/children member. Therefore, my users have to log in and out many times and they have to keep track of their family members' account. My first thought was I should make an account switching feature so that my user can switch their account back and forth between their family members to update information on my application.
After searches on Google, I found way to force switching account on Firebase authentication with Google provider, but those are not what I'm looking for.
My questions are:
Is it possible to store the multiple firebase auth objects (logged in object) in client side?
If it is possible, for how long will the token inside the firebase auth object last for?
If it doesn't last forever, is it possible to refresh update the token so that it can be use without authenticating with the social/phone login again?
The functionality you are asking for is not available out of the box. You have to build it on your own. I do think Firebase provides the pieces to allow you to build it (via Auth and Database).
Is it possible to store the multiple firebase auth objects (logged in object) in client side: You can have multiple Firebase app instances and each one have an auth instance with a current user. You would need to ask each user to authenticate though (you can't authenticate once and sign-in into all of the account). However, you can build your own user group login mechanism, where logging in with one "master" account can allow you to login with multiple accounts using custom Auth.
If it is possible, for how long will the token inside the firebase auth object last for. Firebase sessions are supposed to be indefinite. If a token expires (typically after one hour), it can be refreshed automatically if you are using real time database.
I do not think Firebase has that token capability. But what you could do is simply put the email address of the people in the device by Shared Preferences( for Android). When the user wants to log in with that user bring the email address just ask him to enter the password and then go through the log in process. If you do not want to use SharedPreferences you could simply store the users(also as you said family members) in Firebase Database and link them with the controller user so to speak. Whenever user wants the switch, go and bring the email addres of other family members from Firebase Database and ask in the client for the password and do the login by Firebase Authentication.Hope that helps!
Related
I'm currently building a POS/Store admin app, when a user gets into my app, the Owner of the store will then be asked to login only once for setup purpose (e.g. a new machine), the app will then display a list of staffsName that has already been added by this owner, and then everytime a staff wants to start a new transaction, he/she will only need to click on his/her name, then enter his/her 4-digit pincode to 'login' and process the transaction.
How do i go about achieving this?
I was thinking of using firebase auth for the 'login' of the staff, but then when i log in using the staff credential, I will lose access to the uid of the owner, which is needed to access the owner's store data such as his/her products.
i'm also thinking of using firestore to store the 4digit pincode, but then i'm also concerned about security
There are multiple ways you can approach this, one where you utilize the email login by simply appending a fake domain to the username to create a valid email domain. This user account could be the designated 'user' in question, or utilize credentials inside custom claims or hidden in a database that allows the client or server (depending on your preference) to then log in as the user.
Moreover if you want the manager to login once you can add Authentication State Persistence to specify whether a signed in user should be indefinitely persisted until explicit sing out, page reload etc.
Another approach requires the user also to have a valid auth that is not an email password and you link your pin auth to that main account with Firebase Auth Linking per the documentation: https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/web/account-linking.
This does however require that the user be registered from an auth provider such as Google, Twitter, Apple, etc. then the user will have to activate this link by logging in for authentication purposes. This can in theory be automatically generated and processed without the user knowing.
It is a long way around it since this is essentially a custom solution but it does create the flow you are looking for without having to use a custom auth provider.
I wanted to create website where I have separate Sign In and Sign Up form. I also want to have Google authentication with Firebase.
I've implemented it like this both on sign in and sign up page:
await FIREBASE_AUTH.signInWithPopup(googleAuthProvider);
But this code will always create new user.
What I would like to do is to block creating new user on sign in page, only log them in if user already exists (e.g. as I require terms of use consent on sign up page, but I don't want to require it on sign up page - it would be quite weird)
There is no way in Firebase Authentication to prevent users from signing up, while still allowing them to sign in if they're already created. The reason for this is that Firebase Authentication merely focuses on allowing users to authenticate themselves, so to prove who they are by providing credentials. What they can then do in your app is known as authorization, and is up to you to implement in your front-end application code, back-end application code, and server-side security rules.
For example, if you use one of Firebase's databases (Cloud Firestore or Realtime Database), you'll typically maintain a list of approved user's in that list (either their email or their UID). Then before granting the user access to specific screens in your app or data in your database, you check if the users exists in that list. If not, you don't grant access to the screen or data.
I don't see an issue here, when a user uses google auth when they already have an account it will create a new account with their in some cases new data he might have changed in his google account.
In case your users hold other data in your database I'm pretty sure there's a google auth API for that issue.
In Firebase, it is possible to log in a user as anonymous with a token, and when the user decides to register, just update the credentials. I have a hard time understanding whether the same is possible with Auth0.
We are now using Auth0 as identity provider, the flow is the following:
The user is using the app anonymously with limited access.
User registers in the app with Auth0.
Auth0 issues a token
Firebase receives the token and lets the user use the restricted parts. All the data generated by the anonymous user is lost
What I want to achieve:
When the user starts using the app, Auth0 immediately creates a user token
The token is valid to access certain parts of Firebase database
If/when the user decides to register, their token remains valid but receives additional credentials
Firebase lets the user use the restricted parts
It's Konrad from Auth0 Community Team. Yep as Baskaro said unfortunately it's not supported from our side of stack. It will be great if you can submit it as a feature request to our product team using our feedback form (you will be contacted by one of our product managers within 10 business days):
https://auth0.com/feedback
CONTEXT:
In firebase settings, there's a permissions tab. This shows the users/emails that are associated with accounts that have admin access to the firebase project and console.
I could have sworn I once saw a document describing a method or some way of checking if a user account in firebase auth is also an administrator of the firebase project.
I seriously can't tell if it was in a dream (yes I dream code) or if I actually saw it. I often work late nights and fall asleep in front of my computer.
Question: Is there any way to tell if a user is also an administrator of the firebase app?
IE the user email matches an email that’s listed in the IAM/access management section of firebase as an 'owner' role?
Im currently writing an admin panel for my app, so such a feature would be very useful.
If such a thing does not exist, can anyone suggest an alternative way to manage and authorise users that are capable of logging into the admin dashboard to have control over the app? I already understand custom claims so I will use them if no better solution is suggested.
Well, using only the FirebaseAuth through your app, I don't think you can (as far as my knowledge goes). But you can easily implement the Admin SDK to manage your Custom Claims. Basically, you can use the Admin SDK and find out which "role" you want to access.
Referencing Firebase
Custom claims can contain sensitive data, therefore they should only
be set from a privileged server environment by the Firebase Admin SDK.
and
Custom claims can only be retrieved through the user's ID token.
Access to these claims may be necessary to modify the client UI based
on the user's role or access level. However, backend access should
always be enforced through the ID token after validating it and
parsing its claims. Custom claims should not be sent directly to the
backend, as they can't be trusted outside of the token.
Once the latest claims have propagated to a user's ID token, you can
get them by retrieving the ID token.
Therefore, you'll only need the FirebaseAuth implemented on your app's (client), but will need an extra implementation using a server.
Please see the Firebase use cases, they'll probably fit your needs, and you can pick the one that is "easier" for you.
It turns out it can't do what I wanted in the first place because it's only available on certain triggers.
Here it is: context.authType
https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/functions/functions.EventContext#.authType
The level of permissions for a user. Valid values are:
ADMIN Developer user or user authenticated via a service account. USER
Known user. UNAUTHENTICATED Unauthenticated action null For event
types that do not provide user information (all except Realtime
Database).
Although it would be great if we could get this information on callable functions and firebase triggers because it would help further secure hosted backend admin apps for customer service or developers, who have high-level access to admin functions. This variable seems to not be available on callable functions but is available on newUser trigger - which is strange, because how can user signup ever be authenticated anyway?
I am currently using firebase to make an ionic app. I am using firebase simple login for social auth (facebook, twitter, email & password). The auth works perfectly, it $broadcasts the authed user. However it doesn't seem to create a user in the actual firebase db. I was wondering how I can get the users that have been authed using my app.
For most of the authentication protocols it supports, Firebase doesn't store user data anywhere. Even for the protocols where it does store data (I only know of email+password doing this), it stores this information in a place that your application can't access (though you can find those users in the dashboard of your Firebase).
To quote the Firebase documentation:
It does not store profile or user state in your Firebase. To persist user data you must save it to your Firebase.
What most applications end up doing, is keeping a list of users inside their Firebase that they manage themselves. So when a user first authenticates with the application, it creates a node under /users/<uid> that contains the information for that user.
See this section of the Firebase documentation that describes storing user data.
Firebase does not store profile or user state in your Firebase instance. To persist user data you must save it to your Firebase.
Firebase provides multiple authentications services
Using existing social login providers such Facebook, Twitter, Google, and GitHub. Using these services provides an option for your users to access your application without creating a new account.
Using built-in support for logging in with email & password. This requires registration and account creation that is handled by Firebase. The user account information is stored outside you application.
Using a custom authentication to implement existing server-side authentication, single sign-on, legacy systems, or third-party OAuth based services (such as Yahoo).
Once authenticated, Firebase return a variable auth to your application that you can use for authorization and access control. This variable is null for unauthenticated users, but for authenticated users it is an object containing the user's unique (auth.uid) and potentially other data about the user.
If you want to persist additional user information such as name
and location, then you need to use auth.uid and store it in your
Firebase with additional profile data.
Internally, Firebase generates JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) and creates authenticated sessions by calling Firebase.loginWithCustomToken() with those tokens. Each user is assigned a uid (a unique ID), which is guaranteed to be distinct across all providers, and to never change for a specific authenticated user.
The user data for firebase authentication is stored in firebaseLocalStorageDb in IndexedDB. After login to website, if you delete firebaseLocalStorageDb, the login user data for firebase authentication is all deleted so you need to log in website again.