Create a React app with Firebase Auth and Tailwind

About this guide

This development guide walks you through everything you need to do to build a high-quality React app integrated with Firebase Auth and Tailwind. Check out the tasks below to get started. To save time, you can also use our boilerplate, which gives you a complete React codebase with all of these tasks done for you. Okay, let's dive in!

Tasks

• Setup your React appGet the code

  Setup a React app using npx create-react-app and routing using React Router. There are many ways you can structure your app, but a common setup is to have an App component that defines top-level routes, with each route component imported from the /pages directory. The rest of your components should be located in your /components directory. You can then run your app locally with the npm run start command.

• Create a Firebase AuthProvider and useAuth hookGet the code

  Create an AuthProvider component that fetches the current user from Firebase Auth, subscribes to changes, stores the user in state, and then makes all this data available to child components using Context.Provider. Make sure to update your App component so that AuthProvider wraps all your pages. You'll then create a useAuth hook that reads the user with useContext and returns its value. This will enable any component to call useAuthto get the current user and re-render when it changes.

• ‍Protect pages with a Firebase requireAuth HOCGet the code

  Create a requireAuth higher order component for pages that should only be viewable by authenticated users. It should call your useAuth hook internally to get the current user, show a loading indicator while waiting on the response, and then either render the page or redirect to /signin depending on whether the user is authenticated.

• ‍Create a custom Firebase email action handlerGet the code

  Some Firebase actions, such as password resetting and email verification, will take the user through an email flow and then have them complete the process on a page hosted by Firebase. For a better experience, you can handle this within your own app. You ll need to create a custom Firebase email action route that reads the mode and oobCode params passed by Firebase and then display the appropriate UI (such as a form for selecting a new password). Make sure to handle success/error states with and display a message to the user.

• Build your authentication UIGet the code

  Create an authentication UI using Tailwind elements and Firebase Auth functions. You'll want routes for user sign-up, sign-in, forgot password, and change password. Make sure you properly validate inputs and display any errors returned by Firebase Auth. You may also want to use a library, such as React Hook Form, for managing form state.

• Link user to analytics sessionGet the code

  You can connect Google Analytics sessions to the current authenticated user with the User ID feature. This allows you to see what your users are doing across sessions and devices. You'll need to update your useAuth hook to set the user_id property whenever the user changes.

• Install and configure TailwindGet the code

  Install Tailwind and add a tailwind.config.js file by following the Tailwind guide for Create React App.

• Ensure Tailwind link components hook into React RouterGet the code

  Make all Tailwind link elements hook into React Router by using the Link component from react-router-dom.

• Create a persistent layoutGet the code

  Add any components that you'd like displayed across all pages (such asNavbar and Footer) to your App component. If you need multiple persistent layouts you can instead have each page define its own layout. In that case, create multiple layout components (such as LandingPageLayout and AdminLayout) and wrap the contents of each page.

• ‍Finish your app UI with TailwindGet the code

  Build out the rest of your UI using Tailwind elements and composing them into high-level page sections, such as HeroSection and AccountSettings. Use theming and dynamic classes for styling your components and overriding default element styles.

Get the code

You can get the code for this guide with our React, Firebase Auth, and Tailwind Boilerplate. You'll get a complete React codebase with Firebase Auth and Tailwind integration, all the tasks listed above done for you, and a responsive multi-page template. It should save you about two weeks of development time.

Get the boilerplate