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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 GitLab sign-in experience (user authentication) with .NET Core (MVC) and Logto.

Prerequisites

• A running Logto instance. Check out the introduction page to get started.
• Basic knowledge of .NET Core (MVC).
• A usable GitLab 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:

1. 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.
2. 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 ".NET Core (MVC)" framework card to start creating your application.
3. 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 .NET Core (MVC) with Logto

tip:

• The following demonstration is built on .NET Core 8.0. The SDK is compatible with .NET 6.0 or higher.
• The .NET Core sample projects are available in the GitHub repository.

Installation

Add the NuGet package to your project:

dotnet add package Logto.AspNetCore.Authentication

Add Logto authentication

Open Startup.cs (or Program.cs) and add the following code to register Logto authentication services:

Program.cs

using Logto.AspNetCore.Authentication;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddLogtoAuthentication(options =>
{
  options.Endpoint = builder.Configuration["Logto:Endpoint"]!;
  options.AppId = builder.Configuration["Logto:AppId"]!;
  options.AppSecret = builder.Configuration["Logto:AppSecret"];
});

The AddLogtoAuthentication method will do the following things:

• Set the default authentication scheme to LogtoDefaults.CookieScheme.
• Set the default challenge scheme to LogtoDefaults.AuthenticationScheme.
• Set the default sign-out scheme to LogtoDefaults.AuthenticationScheme.
• Add cookie and OpenID Connect authentication handlers to the authentication scheme.

Sign-in and sign-out flows

Before we proceed, there are two confusing terms in the .NET Core authentication middleware that we need to clarify:

1. CallbackPath: The URI that Logto will redirect the user back to after the user has signed in (the "redirect URI" in Logto)
2. RedirectUri: The URI that will be redirected to after necessary actions have been taken in the Logto authentication middleware.

The sign-in process can be illustrated as follows:

Similarly, .NET Core also has SignedOutCallbackPath and RedirectUri for the sign-out flow.

For the sake of clarity, we'll refer them as follows:

Term we use	.NET Core term
Logto redirect URI	CallbackPath
Logto post sign-out redirect URI	SignedOutCallbackPath
Application redirect URI	RedirectUri

Regarding redirect-based sign-in

1. This authentication process follows the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol, and Logto enforces strict security measures to protect user sign-in.
2. 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.

Configure redirect URIs

note:

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

First, let's configure the Logto redirect URI. Add the following URI to the "Redirect URIs" list in the Logto application details page:

http://localhost:3000/Callback

To configure the Logto post sign-out redirect URI, add the following URI to the "Post sign-out redirect URIs" list in the Logto application details page:

http://localhost:3000/SignedOutCallback

Change the default paths

The Logto redirect URI has a default path of /Callback, and the Logto post sign-out redirect URI has a default path of /SignedOutCallback.

You can leave them as are if there's no special requirement. If you want to change it, you can set the CallbackPath and SignedOutCallbackPath property for LogtoOptions:

Program.cs

builder.Services.AddLogtoAuthentication(options =>
{
  // Other configurations...
  options.CallbackPath = "/Foo";
  options.SignedOutCallbackPath = "/Bar";
});

Remember to update the value in the Logto application details page accordingly.

Implement sign-in/sign-out buttons

First, add actions methods to your Controller, for example:

Controllers/HomeController.cs

public class HomeController : Controller
{
  public IActionResult SignIn()
  {
    // This will redirect the user to the Logto sign-in page.
    return Challenge(new AuthenticationProperties { RedirectUri = "/" });
  }

  // Use the `new` keyword to avoid conflict with the `ControllerBase.SignOut` method
  new public IActionResult SignOut()
  {
    // This will clear the authentication cookie and redirect the user to the Logto sign-out page
    // to clear the Logto session as well.
    return SignOut(new AuthenticationProperties { RedirectUri = "/" });
  }
}

Then, add the links to your View:

Views/Home/Index.cshtml

<p>Is authenticated: @User.Identity?.IsAuthenticated</p>
@if (User.Identity?.IsAuthenticated == true) {
  <a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="SignOut">Sign out</a>
} else {
  <a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="SignIn">Sign in</a>
}

It will show the "Sign in" link if the user is not authenticated, and show the "Sign out" link if the user is authenticated.

Checkpoint: Test your application

Now, you can test your application:

1. Run your application, you will see the sign-in button.
2. Click the sign-in button, the SDK will init the sign-in process and redirect you to the Logto sign-in page.
3. After you signed in, you will be redirected back to your application and see the sign-out button.
4. Click the sign-out button to clear token storage and sign out.

Add GitLab connector

To enable quick sign-in and improve user conversion, connect with .NET Core (MVC) as an identity provider. The Logto social connector helps you establish this connection in minutes by allowing several parameter inputs.

To add a social connector, simply follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Console > Connectors > Social Connectors.
2. Click "Add social connector" and select "GitLab".
3. Follow the README guide and complete required fields and customize settings.

note:

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

Set up GitLab OAuth app

Sign in with GitLab account

Go to the GitLab website and sign in with your GitLab account. You may register a new account if you don't have one.

Create and configure OAuth app

Follow the creating a GitLab OAuth App guide, and register a new application.

Name your new OAuth application in Name and fill in Redirect URI of the app. Customize the Redirect URIs as ${your_logto_origin}/callback/${connector_id}. The connector_id can be found on the top bar of the Logto Admin Console connector details page.

On scopes, select openid. You may also want to enable profile and email. The profile scope is required to get the user's profile information, and the email scope is required to get the user's email address. Ensure you have allowed these scopes in your GitLab OAuth app if you want to use them. These scopes will also be used when configuring your connector later.

note:

• If you use custom domains, add both the custom domain and the default Logto domain to the Redirect URIs to ensure the OAuth flow works correctly with both domains.
• If you encounter the error message "The redirect_uri MUST match the registered callback URL for this application." when logging in, try aligning the Redirect URI of your GitLab OAuth App and your Logto App's redirect URL (including the protocol) to resolve the issue.

Managing OAuth apps

Go to the Applications page on GitLab, where you can add, edit, or delete existing OAuth apps. You can also find the Application ID and generate Secret in the OAuth app detail pages.

Configure your connector

Fill out the clientId and clientSecret field with the Application ID and Secret you've got from the OAuth app detail pages mentioned in the previous section.

scope is a space-delimited list of scopes. If not provided, scope defaults to be openid. For GitLab connector, the scope you may want to use are openid, profile and email. profile scope is required to get the user's profile information, and email scope is required to get the user's email address. Ensure you have allowed these scopes in your GitLab OAuth app (configured in Create and configure OAuth app section).

Config types

Name	Type
clientId	string
clientSecret	string
scope	string

Test GitLab connector

That's it. The GitLab connector should be available now. Don't forget to Enable connector in sign-in experience.

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 GitLab connector should be available now.

Enable GitLab connector in Sign-in Experience

Once you create a social connector successfully, you can enable it as a "Continue with GitLab" button in Sign-in Experience.

1. Navigate to Console > Sign-in experience > Sign-up and sign-in.
2. (Optional) Choose "Not applicable" for sign-up identifier if you need social login only.
3. Add configured GitLab connector to the "Social sign-in" section.

Testing and Validation

Return to your .NET Core (MVC) app. You should now be able to sign in with GitLab. Enjoy!

Further readings

End-user flows: Logto provides a out-of-the-box authentication flows including MFA and enterprise SSO, along with powerful APIs for flexible implementation of account settings, security verification, and multi-tenant experience.

Authorization: Authorization defines the actions a user can do or resources they can access after being authenticated. Explore how to protect your API for native and single-page applications and implement Role-based Access Control (RBAC).

Organizations: Particularly effective in multi-tenant SaaS and B2B apps, the organization feature enable tenant creation, member management, organization-level RBAC, and just-in-time-provisioning.

Customer IAM series Our serial blog posts about Customer (or Consumer) Identity and Access Management, from 101 to advanced topics and beyond.