Basic integration

Requirements for Internet Computer applications

This guide assumes familiarity with building on the IC. More information can be found here. Your environment will need:

• dfx SDK
• node
• @dfinity/agent, @dfinity/identity, and @dfinity/auth-client node packages >v0.11.0

The authentication client

For a basic typescript integration inclusive of how to make authenticated calls locally in your development environment, follow along with our fork of Kyle Peacock's repository here for typescript.

Replacing existing identity provider

If you already have Internet Identity authentication set up and want to switch to NFID, simply change the existing identityProvider URL in your authClient.login({}) and customize with your application's name and logo:

  // Your application's name (URI encoded)
  const APPLICATION_NAME = "Your%20Application%20Name";

  // URL to 37x37px logo of your application (URI encoded)
  const APPLICATION_LOGO_URL = "https://nfid.one/icons/favicon-96x96.png";

  const AUTH_PATH = "/authenticate/?applicationName="+APPLICATION_NAME+"&applicationLogo="+APPLICATION_LOGO_URL+"#authorize";

  // Replace https://identity.ic0.app with NFID_AUTH_URL
  // as the identityProvider for authClient.login({}) 
  const NFID_AUTH_URL = "https://nfid.one" + AUTH_PATH;

Open auth in new window instead of new tab

We've added an option to open authentication windows in a new window instead of the default new tab opener. Just pass the variable windowOpenerFeatures with html options (like these default options we recommend passing) in your authClient.login({}):

windowOpenerFeatures: 
  `left=${window.screen.width / 2 - 525 / 2}, `+ 
  `top=${window.screen.height / 2 - 705 / 2},` + 
  `toolbar=0,location=0,menubar=0,width=525,height=705`

Generating the same user identifiers across your domains

NFID is an anonymizing identity protocol that generates new identifiers for each user account <> domain pair. If developers want to ensure the same identifiers are generated across different domains, follow these instructions for multiple domains.

Migrating existing users

If you have existing users, their user profile type will need a has_many relationship to principals instead of a has_one.

We are working on a frontend plugin that packages a UX for your users to authenticate with both the original identity provider and NFID, as well as the rust & motoko examples for how a user_profile might migrate from a has_one to a has_many relationship with principals.

If you'd like to get started sooner, just know that this is the process and it is entirely separate from NFID.