Back4App

Sign In with Github Tutorial

Introduction

Sign In with Github enables users to sign in to Apps using their Github accounts.

Step 1 - Create a New Back4App App

First of all, it’s necessary to make sure that you have an existing app created at Back4App. However, if you are a new user, you can check this tutorial to learn how to create one.

Step 2 - Create a new Github App

Create a new Github Application by going to Applications/New
Fill up the Application name, your Homepage URL, a quick Description and your Authorization callback URL`

Then click Register Application. You should then see your App Secret and Client Secret

Step 3 - Retrieve your Code

Visit the following URL, changing the values for CLIENT_ID for the one you created.

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https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize?scope=user:email&client_id=CLIENT_ID

Log in with your Github account:

and the redirected website will have your code in the URL:

Copy the Code part of the URL only and run the following CURL command replacing the values YOUR_CODE, YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET for the values of your application

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curl -X POST \
    -F \'client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID' 
    -F 'client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET' 
    -F 'code=YOUR_CODE' 
    -F 'accept=json' 
    https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token

Run it and you should retrieve your access token:

REMEMBER: the code can be used only once. If you get an error or don’t use your token, you must re-generate your Code to be able to run it again.

Step 4 - Start the development

Now that the Sign In with Github is configured, you can start the development process.
The format for AUTHDATA is:

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{
  "github": {
    "id": "user's Github id (string)",
    "access_token": "an authorized Github access token for the user"
  }
}

Here is the method for the iOS SDK:

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PFUser.logInWithAuthType(inBackground: "github", authData: ["access_token":tokenString, "id": user]).continueWith { task -> Any? in
    
}

And here for the Android SDK:

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Map<string, string, bool> authData = new HashMap<string, string, bool>(); 
authData.put("access_token", tokenString);
authData.put("id", user);
ParseUser.logInWithInBackground("github", authData){

}