Custom Login Form

This tutorial will show you how to:

• Create and use a custom login form.
• Allow authenticated users to login by scanning a QRCode.

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To complete this tutorial, you need a real mobile device (simulators do not simulate camera).

Scenario: You already have a website with authenticated users and you want them to login into their app just by scanning a QRCode with their device

You can download this custom login form from the 4D go mobile gallery.

STEP 1. Getting started

In this tutorial, we're going to:

• Include a custom login form
• Add the ability for your app users to login just by scanning a QRCode

First download our Starter project, which contains a database file and ready to use webpages in the Webfolder folder:

Starter project

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This project already includes a Users table with a Login and a Password for each authenticated user.

STEP 2. Include and use a custom login form

To use a custom login form, the first thing you'll need to do is creating a YourDatabase.4dbase/Resources/Mobile/form/login folder.

Download the Sign in With QRCode login form and simply drop it in the login folder you've just created.

In the Publishing page of the project editor, click Authentication and select the SignInWithQRCode form.

STEP 3. On Mobile app Authentication database method

In the Publishing page, click on the Create... button to create and open the On Mobile app Authentication database method for your project. This is how it should look to authenticated users :

var $0 : Object
var $1 : Object

var $request; $response : Object

$request:=$1  // Information provided by mobile application
$response:=New object  // Information returned to mobile application

$entity:=ds.User.query("login = :1"; $request.email)
If ($entity.length>0)
    $password:=$entity.first().password  // Get the password from the table
    
    If (Verify password hash($password; $request.parameters.token))
        // Comparison with what you receive in the request
        
        $response.success:=True
    Else 
        $response.success:=False
    End if 
Else 
    $response.success:=False
End if 

// Optional message to display on mobile App.
If ($response.success)
    $response.statusText:="You are successfully authenticated"
Else 
    $response.statusText:="Sorry, you are not authorized to use this application."
End if 

$0:=$response

STEP 4. Project Methods

Authentication method

Here we get the variable from the form and check if those values exist in the User table :

//Retrieve all the variables of the form
C_TEXT($1)
ARRAY TEXT($arrNames; 0)
ARRAY TEXT($arrVals; 0)

// Get the login and pswd variable from the authentication web page
WEB GET VARIABLES($arrNames; $arrVals)
$VLOGIN:=Find in array($arrNames; "VLOGIN")
$VPASS:=Find in array($arrNames; "VPASS")

// Shared variable creation to access to it in the code
Use (Storage)
    Storage.session:=New shared object("login"; ""; "password"; "")
End use 

// Search if the login / pswd exist and if the user can be authentified
$entity:=ds.User.query("login = :1 and password = :2"; $arrVals{$VLOGIN}; $arrVals{$VPASS})

// If the login / pswd exist the login / pswd are initialised in the share variable
If ($entity.length>0)
    Use (Storage.session)
        Storage.session.login:=$arrVals{$VLOGIN}
        Storage.session.password:=$arrVals{$VPASS}
        Storage.session.success:=True
    End use 
    
    // Redirection to the web page
    WEB SEND HTTP REDIRECT("/createQRCode.html")
    
Else 
    // Back to the home page
    Use (Storage.session)
        Storage.session.success:=False
    End use 
    WEB SEND HTTP REDIRECT("/")
End if 

GenerateQRCODE method

Here we generate a vqrCodeData process variable which is a json including the user email and the encrypted password. These data are going to be embedded in the QRCode.

// Use storage variable
$currentUserEmail:=Storage.session.login
$token:=Storage.session.password
$options:=New object("algorithm"; "bcrypt"; "cost"; 4)
$hash:=Generate password hash($token; $options)

// Process variable creation (json value with mail and encrypted pswd)
vqrCodeData:=JSON Stringify(New object("email"; $currentUserEmail; "token"; $hash))

// Redirection to the QRcode webpage
WEB SEND HTTP REDIRECT("/generatedQRCode.shtml")

STEP 5. Website

For this tutorial, three html pages are already available into the WebFolder folder:

• The authentication page (index.html)
• The QRcode generation page (createQRCode.html)
• The final page the user will scan from his mobile device (generatedQRCode.shtml)

Let's have a focus on those three pages :

index.html

Here, we just use a 4DACTION to post login and password to be used in the Authentication Project Method that we are going to see in step 4:

  <form class="box" ACTION="/4DACTION/Authentication" METHOD=post>
  <h1>1. Login</h1>
  <input type="text" id="login" placeholder="Username" name=VLOGIN >
  <input type="password" id="login" placeholder="Password" name=VPASS>
  <input type="submit" name="" value="Login">
  </form>

createQRCode.html

Here, we use call the GenerateQRCODE Project Method using a 4DACTION:

<h1>2. GENERATE YOUR QRCODE</h1>
    <div>
        <p>Create your QRCode to authenticate clicking <a href="/4DACTION/GenerateQRCODE">Here</a></p>
    </div>

generatedQRCode.shtml

In this last page, we use 4D tags to get the data value:

<h1>3. SCAN THE QRCODE FROM YOUR PHONE</h1>
  <div id="canvas"></div>

  <script type="text/javascript">
  
    const qrCode = new QRCodeStyling({
      width: 300,
      height: 300,
      data: '<!--#4DEVAL vqrCodeData-->',
      dotsOptions: {
        color: "#000",
        type: "square"
      },
      backgroundOptions: {
        color: "#FFFFFF",
      }
    });
    qrCode.append(document.getElementById("canvas"));
  </script>
  

STEP 6. Get the entire scenario

Login into your website home page

Enter david@4D.com in the Login field and TEST in the Password field in your website home page and click Login (Which is an existing record in the User table).

Generate the QR Code

Click on the HERE button to generate the QR Code.

You will be redirected to the final QR Code page.

Build your app on a real device

Install your mobile app from the project editor on a real device.

Then the custom login form will appear to allow you scanning the generated QRCode and login into your mobile app.

Here is the final result :