Learn MERN: Login and Register Authentication in React Native

React Native is a popular framework for building mobile applications using JavaScript and React. In this article, we will learn how to implement login and register authentication in a React Native app using Node JS and Mongo DB as the backend.

Setting Up the Backend

First, we need to set up the backend for our authentication system. We will use Node JS to create an API that will handle user registration and login. We will also use Mongo DB to store user information.

To start, create a new Node JS project and install the necessary dependencies using npm or yarn. You will need to install packages such as express, bcrypt, jsonwebtoken, and mongoose to handle server-side authentication and database operations.

Creating the User Model

Next, we need to create a user model in our Node JS project. This model will define the structure of our user data and handle operations such as user creation, updating, and finding.

Using Mongoose, we can easily define a user schema and create a model that will interact with our Mongo DB database. The user model will have fields such as username, email, password, and any other information we want to store about the user.

Implementing Registration and Login Endpoints

After creating the user model, we can implement registration and login endpoints in our Node JS API. The registration endpoint will take user input, validate the data, hash the password using bcrypt, and save the user information to the Mongo DB database.

Similarly, the login endpoint will take user credentials, validate the input, compare the password hash with the stored hash in the database, and generate a JSON Web Token (JWT) for user authentication.

Integrating with React Native

Once the backend is set up, we can integrate our authentication system with a React Native app. We can use libraries such as axios to make HTTP requests to our Node JS API and AsyncStorage to store and retrieve JWT tokens for user authentication.

In our React Native app, we can create screens for user registration, login, and dashboard. We can also implement navigation between these screens and handle user input and validation using libraries such as Formik and Yup.

Conclusion

Implementing login and register authentication in React Native using Node JS and Mongo DB is an essential part of building secure and user-friendly mobile applications. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a robust authentication system for your React Native app and learn the basics of working with the MERN stack.