Handle Members with Wix-Managed Login

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With Wix Headless, you can authenticate members on a site or app using Wix as your identity provider. This allows members to securely sign in and access content or features that are specific to their account, such as their profile, saved items, order history, or other private information.

Wix-managed login uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol with PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) for secure authentication. If you're new to these concepts, see OAuth 2.0 and PKCE explained.

This article explains how to implement Wix-managed member login using the REST API.

You'll learn how to:

Generate and store security data for the login flow.
Redirect members to the Wix-managed login page.
Handle the callback and exchange the authorization code for member tokens.
Log out members using the Wix-managed logout URL.

Note: Wix-managed login is the simplest way to set up member authentication, as Wix handles the user experience and authentication process. However, you can't change the look and feel of the Wix login page. If you need a custom-branded login experience, create a custom login page.

Prerequisites

When using Wix-managed login, you're responsible for writing the code to start the login and handle the response. Wix handles the login UI and authentication.

The login flow looks like this:

A member starts the login on your site or app. For example, they click a "Log in" button. Your site or app generates the required OAuth data using your Wix client and stores it securely. Then, it redirects the member to the Wix-managed login page.
The member logs in on the Wix-managed login page. Wix then redirects the member back to your site or app using a callback URL you've configured. This URL must be one of your allowed authorization redirect URIs.
In your callback handler, process the request, verify the login, and exchange the code for member tokens.

Step 1 | Prepare security data

Before redirecting a member to login on a Wix-managed login page you need to prepare the following:

A redirect URI for the callback page. This is the URI that the site member is redirected to after logging in. The redirectUri must be an allowed authorization redirect URI.
The Client ID of your OAuth app. You can find this value in your Headless Settings. If you haven't created an OAuth app yet, see Create an OAuth App for Visitors and Members to set one up.
A PKCE code verifier and code challenge. These are used to prevent CSRF attacks and authorization code injection attacks.
An OAuth2 state parameter used to mitigate CSRF attacks.

Step 2 | Store security data

Store the code verifier, code challenge, and state parameter locally. For example, you can store them in localStorage or a cookie. You need to use this data when users are redirected back to your site or app from the Wix-managed login page.

Call Create Redirect Session to get a login URL for the site member.

Important: For this request to succeed, you must publish the Wix site connected to your Headless project. Wix uses the published site to display the login page. To do this, open your project dashboard, select Design Site from the left panel, and then click Publish.

When calling Create Redirect Session, send the following parameters, which include the data you prepared earlier:

redirectUri: The redirect URI to your login callback. The redirectUri must be an allowed authorization redirect URI.
clientId: The Client ID of your OAuth app, which can be found in your project's Headless Settings.
codeChallenge: PKCE code challenge string.
codeChallengeMethod: Use "S256".
responseMode: Use "fragment". The state and code will be returned in the URL used to reach the login callback in a URL fragment.
responseType: Use "code".
scope: Use "offline_access".
state: A state parameter.

Note: In the request header, use the access token of the current visitor for authorization.

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The response includes:

id: Redirect session ID.
fullUrl: A URL to the Wix-managed login page.

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Redirect the site member to the login URL returned by Create Redirect Session.

This redirects site members to the Wix-managed login page, where Wix handles the login process.

Step 5 | Handle the callback

Once members log in, Wix redirects them back to your site or app along with information you can use to confirm the login and generate member tokens for frontend API calls.

In your callback handler:

Get the OAuth data that you stored locally before making the login request. Remember, this security data includes a code verifier, code challenge, and state parameter.
Get the login results and handle errors. If the login was successful, the URL of the callback page contains a fragment that includes code= and state=. Parse the URL to retrieve the code and state values.
Check that the state value is the same as the state value you retrieved from local storage.
Use the code to generate member tokens.

Step 6 | Generate member tokens

Generate new member tokens by calling Retrieve Tokens.

When calling Retrieve Tokens, send the following parameters:

clientId: The Client ID of your OAuth app, which can be found in your project's Headless Settings.
grantType: Set as "authorization_code" to get member tokens with an authorization code.
redirectUri: The same URI passed when calling the Create Redirect Session. The redirectUri must be an allowed authorization redirect URI.
code: The code you retrieved from the URL fragment in the previous step.
codeVerifier: The code verifier you retrieved from local storage in the previous step.

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The response includes:

access_token: An access token used to authorize API calls.
expires_in: The number of seconds before the access token expires. Access tokens expire after 4 hours (14,400 seconds).
refresh_token: A refresh token used to get a new access token.

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Once you have tokens, you can use them to make authenticated calls to APIs on behalf of the current member.

Logging a member out

To log a member out, call Redirect Session to get a logout URL, and then redirect the member to that URL.

When calling Redirect Session, send the following parameters:

clientId: The Client ID of your OAuth app, which can be found in your project's Headless Settings.
postFlowUrl: Where the member will be redirected after logging out.

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The response includes:

id: Redirect session ID.
fullUrl: A URL to the Wix-managed login page.

Redirect the browser to the returned fullUrl to log the site member out. The browser is automatically redirected back to the postFlowUrl that you passed to Create Redirect Session.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with Wix-managed login, make sure that:

You're using the correct client ID.
The redirectUri parameter passed to Redirect Session is listed in your allowed authorization redirect URIs, and that the values match exactly.

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