Flask Social Login - Free Sample Included

Hello! This article presents an open-source sample that implements Github Social Login on top of Flask, a popular web framework written in Python. The project source code can be downloaded and used from Github (MIT Licence) and also configured to work with other well-known OAuth2 providers like Google, Twitter, or Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Flask Social Login - Source Code (Github)

The code uses Flask-Dance to bridge the authentication flow to the Github OAuth interface. In order to make the app more appealing a few simple pages styled with Bootstrap 5 are provided.

Flask Social Login - Github Provider

The authentication flow provided by Flask-Dance library requires only a few lines of code to implement a Social Authentication via Github (and not only).

The first thing we need to do is to access Github and create a new OAuth application that will provide OAUTH_CLIENT_ID and OAUTH_SECRET_KEY required by Flask-dance library.

Create OAuth APP on Github

In order to do this, please access Github -> Settings (top right corner) -> Developer Settings from the left menu.

Flask Social Login - Create OAuth App on Github

Access the OAuth Apps item from the left menu and click to create a new APP:

Flask Social Login - OAuth APPS Menu

Once the new page is loaded we can create a sample APP. The most important settings are listed bellow:

Client ID - (readonly) generated by Github - to be saved in .env file
Client Secrets - we need to generate one and use it in .env file
Application Name - important for public services
Homepage URL: https://localhost:5000
Authorization callback URL: https://localhost:5000/login/github/authorized

Please note that all URLs use https schema, something that we need to take care in our project. Once the project is saved, we can go back to our project, save the information provided by Github and start it.

As mentioned before, source code is published on Github and we can start and test this simple project with a few lines type in the terminal. Please note that the project requires a minimal programming kit already installed in the workstation:

Python3 - a modern script language used for many types of projects
GIT - a command-line tool used to download sources from Github
A modern code editor - VSCode or Atom

Once all tools are installed and accessible in the terminal we can proceed further and compile the project by following the instruction provided by the README file.

Step #1 - Clone sources (public repo)

$ git clone https://github.com/app-generator/flask-social-login.git
$ cd flask-social-login

Flask Social Login - Clone Sources

Step #2 - Create a virtual environment

$ virtualenv env
$ source env/bin/activate

Flask Social Login - Create Virtual ENV

Step #3 - Install dependencies

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Flask Social Login - Install Modules

Step #4 - Set Up Environment

$ # Set the FLASK_APP environment variable
$ (Unix/Mac) export FLASK_APP=run.py
$ (Windows) set FLASK_APP=run.py
$ (Powershell) $env:FLASK_APP = ".\run.py"

Flask Social Login - Set up Environment

Step #5 - Creating an OAuth App (on Github)

For details access the previous section.

Step #6 - Rename .env.sample to .env and edit the file

GITHUB_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID - value provided by Github
GITHUB_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET - value provided by Github

Step #7 - (optional) Enable DEBUG Environment (local development)

$ # Set up the DEBUG environment
$ (Unix/Mac) export FLASK_ENV=development
$ (Windows) set FLASK_ENV=development
$ (Powershell) $env:FLASK_ENV = "development"

Flask Social Login - Enable DEBUG Environment

Step #8 - Start the project (HTTPS)

$ flask run --cert=adhoc
$
$ # Access the app in browser: HTTPS://127.0.0.1:5000/

Flask Social Login - Compile project