How to build Aliyun Direct Mail Email passwordless sign-in with Auth.js (Next Auth)

For our new friends:

Logto is an Auth0 alternative designed for modern apps and SaaS products. It offers both Cloud and Open-source services to help you quickly launch your identity and management (IAM) system. Enjoy authentication, authorization, and multi-tenant management all in one.

We recommend starting with a free development tenant on Logto Cloud. This allows you to explore all the features easily.

In this article, we will go through the steps to quickly build the Aliyun Direct Mail sign-in experience (user authentication) with Auth.js (Next Auth) and Logto.

Prerequisites

A running Logto instance. Check out the introduction page to get started.
Basic knowledge of Auth.js (Next Auth).
A usable Aliyun Direct Mail account.

Create an application in Logto

Logto is based on OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication and OAuth 2.0 authorization. It supports federated identity management across multiple applications, commonly called Single Sign-On (SSO).

To create your Traditional web application, simply follow these steps:

Open the Logto Console. In the "Get started" section, click the "View all" link to open the application frameworks list. Alternatively, you can navigate to Logto Console > Applications, and click the "Create application" button.
In the opening modal, click the "Traditional web" section or filter all the available "Traditional web" frameworks using the quick filter checkboxes on the left. Click the "Auth.js (Next Auth)" framework card to start creating your application.
Enter the application name, e.g., "Bookstore," and click "Create application".

🎉 Ta-da! You just created your first application in Logto. You'll see a congrats page which includes a detailed integration guide. Follow the guide to see what the experience will be in your application.

Integrate Auth.js (Next Auth) with Logto

tip:

In this guide, we assume you have set up Next Auth in your Next.js project. If you haven't, check out the Next Auth documentation to get started.

Installation

Install Auth.js via your favorite package manager:

npm
pnpm
yarn

npm i next-auth@beta

pnpm add next-auth@beta

yarn add next-auth@beta

See Auth.js documentation for more details.

Set up Auth.js provider

tip:

You can find and copy "App Secret" from application details page in Admin Console:

Modify your API route config of Auth.js, add Logto as an OIDC provider:

Auth.js v5
Next Auth v4

Setup environment variables:

AUTH_LOGTO_ISSUER=https://xxxx.logto.app/oidc
AUTH_LOGTO_ID=your-logto-app-id
AUTH_LOGTO_SECRET=your-logto-app-secret

./app/api/auth/[...nextauth]/route.ts
import { handlers } from '@/auth';
export const { GET, POST } = handlers;

./auth.ts
import NextAuth from 'next-auth';
import Logto from 'next-auth/providers/logto';

export const { handlers, signIn, signOut, auth } = NextAuth({
  providers: [Logto],
});

Then you can also add an optional Middleware to keep the session alive:

./middleware.ts
export { auth as middleware } from '@/auth';

app/api/auth/[...nextauth]/route.ts
import NextAuth from 'next-auth';

const handler = NextAuth({
  providers: [
    {
      id: 'logto',
      name: 'Logto',
      type: 'oauth',
      // You can get the well-known URL from the Logto Application Details page,
      // in the field "OpenID Provider configuration endpoint"
      wellKnown: 'https://xxxx.logto.app/oidc/.well-known/openid-configuration',
      authorization: { params: { scope: 'openid offline_access profile email' } },
      clientId: '<logto-app-id>',
      clientSecret: '<logto-app-secret>',
      client: {
        id_token_signed_response_alg: 'ES384',
      },
      profile(profile) {
        // You can customize the user profile mapping here
        return {
          id: profile.sub,
          name: profile.name ?? profile.username,
          email: profile.email,
          image: profile.picture,
        };
      },
    },
  ],
});

export { handler as GET, handler as POST };

Replace the wellKnown URL with your Logto application's "OpenID Provider configuration endpoint".
Replace the clientId and clientSecret with your Logto application's ID and secret.
Customize the profile function to map the user profile to the Next Auth user object, the default mapping is shown in the example.
Remember to set the id_token_signed_response_alg to ES384.

You can find more details in the Auth.js documentation.

Before we dive into the details, here's a quick overview of the end-user experience. The sign-in process can be simplified as follows:

Your app invokes the sign-in method.
The user is redirected to the Logto sign-in page. For native apps, the system browser is opened.
The user signs in and is redirected back to your app (configured as the redirect URI).

This authentication process follows the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol, and Logto enforces strict security measures to protect user sign-in.
If you have multiple apps, you can use the same identity provider (Logto). Once the user signs in to one app, Logto will automatically complete the sign-in process when the user accesses another app.

To learn more about the rationale and benefits of redirect-based sign-in, see Logto sign-in experience explained.

note:

In the following code snippets, we assume your app is running on http://localhost:3000/.

Let's switch to the Application details page of Logto Console. Add a Redirect URI http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/logto and click "Save changes".

app/components/sign-in.tsx
import { signIn } from '@/auth';

export default function SignIn() {
  return (
    <form
      action={async () => {
        'use server';
        await signIn('logto');
      }}
    >
      <button type="submit">Sign In</button>
    </form>
  );
}

app/components/sign-out.tsx
import { signOut } from '@/auth';

export function SignOut() {
  return (
    <form
      action={async () => {
        'use server';
        await signOut();
      }}
    >
      <button type="submit">Sign Out</button>
    </form>
  );
}

app/page.tsx
import SignIn from './components/sign-in';
import SignOut from './components/sign-out';
import { auth } from '@/auth';

export default function Home() {
  const session = await auth();

  return <div>{session?.user ? <SignOut /> : <SignIn />}</div>;
}

Above is a simple example, you can check the Auth.js documentation for more details.

Checkpoint

Now, you can test your application to see if the authentication works as expected.

Add Aliyun Direct Mail connector

Email connector is a method used to send one-time passwords (OTPs) for authentication. It enables Email address verification to support passwordless authentication, including Email-based registration, sign-in, two-factor authentication (2FA), and account recovery. You can easily connect Aliyun Direct Mail as your Email provider. With the Logto Email connector, you can set this up in just a few minutes.

To add a Email connector, simply follow these steps:

Navigate to Console > Connector > Email and SMS connectors.
To add a new Email connector, click the "Set up" button and select "Aliyun Direct Mail".
Review the README documentation for your selected provider.
Complete the configuration fields in the "Parameter Configuration" section.
Customize the Email template using the JSON editor.
Test your configuration by sending a verification code to your Email address.

note:

If you are following the in-place Connector guide, you can skip the next section.

Set up Aliyun email connector

Set up an email service in Aliyun DirectMail Console

Create an Aliyun account

Head to Aliyun and create your Aliyun account if you don't have one.

Enable and configure Aliyun Direct Mail

Go to the DM service console page and sign in. Enable the Direct Mail service by clicking the "Apply to enable" (申请开通) button on the top left of the page and begin the configuration process.

Starting from the DM admin console page, you should:

Go to "Email Domains" (发信域名) from the sidebar and add "New Domain" (新建域名) following the instructions.
Customize "Sender Addresses" (发信地址) and "Email Tags" (邮件标签) respectively.

After finishing setup, there are two different ways to test:

Go to the DirectMail Overview page, find "Operation Guide" (操作引导) at the bottom of the page, and click on "Send Emails" (发送邮件). You will find all the different kinds of testing methods.
Follow the path "Send Emails" (发送邮件) -> "Email Tasks" (发送邮件) in the sidebar to create a testing task.

Compose the connector JSON

From the DM admin console page, hover on your avatar in the top right corner and go to "AccessKey Management" (AccessKey 管理), and click "Create AccessKey" (创建 AccessKey). You will get an "AccessKey ID" and "AccessKey Secret" pair after finishing security verification. Please keep them properly.
Go to the "Sender Addresses" (发信地址) or "Email Tags" (邮件标签) tab you just visited from the DM admin console page, you can find Sender Address or Email Tag easily.
Fill out the Aliyun DM Connector settings:
- Fill out the accessKeyId and accessKeySecret fields with access key pairs you've got from step 1.
- Fill out the accountName and fromAlias field with "Sender Address" and "Email Tag" which were found in step 2. All templates will share this signature name. (You can leave fromAlias blank as it is OPTIONAL.)
- You can add multiple DM connector templates for different cases. Here is an example of adding a single template:
  - Fill out the subject field, which will work as title of the sending email.
  - Fill out the content field with arbitrary string-type contents. Do not forget to leave {{code}} placeholder for random verification code.
  - Fill out usageType field with either Register, SignIn, ForgotPassword or Generic for different use cases. (usageType is a Logto property to identify the proper use case.) In order to enable full user flows, templates with usageType Register, SignIn, ForgotPassword and Generic are required.

Test Aliyun DM connector

You can type in an email address and click on "Send" to see whether the settings can work before "Save and Done".

That's it. Don't forget to Enable connector in sign-in experience.

Config types

Name	Type
accessKeyId	string
accessKeySecret	string
accountName	string
fromAlias	string (OPTIONAL)
templates	Template[]

Template Properties	Type	Enum values
subject	string	N/A
content	string	N/A
usageType	enum string	'Register' \| 'SignIn' \| 'ForgotPassword' \| 'Generic'

Save your configuration

Double check you have filled out necessary values in the Logto connector configuration area. Click "Save and Done" (or "Save changes") and the Aliyun Direct Mail connector should be available now.

Once you create a connector successfully, you can enable phone number-based passwordless login and registration.

Navigate to Console > Sign-in experience > Sign-up and sign-in.
Set up sign-up methods (Optional):
1. Select "Email address" or "Email or phone number" as the sign-up identifier.
2. "Verify at sign-up" is forced to be enabled. You can also enable "Create a password" on registration.
Set up sign-in methods:
1. Select Email address as one of sign-in identifiers. You can provide multiple available identifiers (email, phone number, and username).
2. Select "Verification code" and / or "Password" as the authentication factor.
Click "Save changes" and test it in "Live preview".

In addition to registration and login via OTPs, you can also have password recovery and -based security verification enabled, as well as linking Email address to profile. See End-user flows for more details.

Testing and Validation

Return to your Auth.js (Next Auth) app. You should now be able to sign in with Aliyun Direct Mail. Enjoy!

Create an application in Logto​

Integrate Auth.js (Next Auth) with Logto​

Installation​

Set up Auth.js provider​

Configure sign-in redirect URI​

Regarding redirect-based sign-in​

Implement sign-in and sign-out​

Implement sign-in and sign-out button​

Show sign-in and sign-out button in the page​

Checkpoint​

Add Aliyun Direct Mail connector​

Set up Aliyun email connector​

Set up an email service in Aliyun DirectMail Console​

Create an Aliyun account​

Enable and configure Aliyun Direct Mail​

Compose the connector JSON​

Test Aliyun DM connector​

Config types​

Save your configuration​

Enable Aliyun Direct Mail connector in Sign-in Experience​

Testing and Validation​

Further readings​

Create an application in Logto

Integrate Auth.js (Next Auth) with Logto

Installation

Set up Auth.js provider

Configure sign-in redirect URI

Regarding redirect-based sign-in

Implement sign-in and sign-out

Implement sign-in and sign-out button

Show sign-in and sign-out button in the page