Welcome to the exciting world of web application development! One of the most fundamental aspects of building modern applications is managing user identities and controlling access to resources. This is where authentication comes in. In simple terms, authentication is the process of verifying that a user is who they claim to be.
Think about your favorite social media platform or online store. How do they know it's you when you log in? They use authentication! They typically ask you to provide some form of credentials, like an email address and password, or a username and password, to prove your identity.
Beyond just logging in, authentication plays a crucial role in authorization. While authentication is about verifying identity, authorization is about determining what an authenticated user is allowed to do. For instance, a regular user might be able to view products, while an administrator might have the ability to add or remove them.
In web applications, authentication often involves several steps:
graph TD
A[User initiates login] --> B{User provides credentials};
B --> C[Application sends credentials to server];
C --> D[Server verifies credentials with a database or identity provider];
D -- Success --> E[Server sends back a session token or JWT];
D -- Failure --> F[Server sends back an error];
E --> G[Browser stores token and includes it in subsequent requests];
G --> H[Server uses token to identify user for authorized actions];
As you can see, managing authentication from scratch can involve complex processes like secure password storage, session management, and token handling. This is where powerful tools and services like Supabase Auth shine. They abstract away much of this complexity, allowing you to focus on building the core features of your application.
In this chapter, we'll dive into how Supabase Auth simplifies these authentication workflows, offering you robust and secure solutions with minimal effort. We'll explore various authentication methods and how to integrate them seamlessly into your web projects.