Securing Angular Apps with Keycloak

In this article we'll be using Keycloak to quickly secure a Angular application with user management and single sign on (SSO) using the open source IAMs Keycloak for Authentication and Authorization. We will demonstrate the integration by securing a page for logged-in users. This quickly provides a jump-off point to more complex integrations.

Phase Two is a Keycloak as a Service provider enabling SaaS builders to accelerate time-to-market with powerful enterprise features like SSO, identity, and user management features. Phase Two enhances Keycloak through a variety of open-source extentions for modern SaaS use cases. Phase Two supports both hosted and on-premise deployment options.

What is Keycloak?

Keycloak has been a leader in the Identity and Access Management world since its launch almost 8 years ago. It is an open-source offering under the stewardship of Red Hat

INFO

If you just want to skip to the code, visit the Phase Two Angular example.

If you want to see a live example, visit the Phase Two Angular example.

TOC

• Keycloak Setup
• Angular

Setting up a Keycloak Instance

TIP
If you already have a functioning Keycloak instance, you can skip to the next section.

Setting up an OIDC Client

We need to create a OpenID Connect Client in Keycloak for the app to communicate with.

OIDC Config

Adding a Non-Admin User

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It is bad practice to use your Admin user to sign in to an Application.

Since we do not want to use our Admin user for signing into the app we will build, we need to add another non-admin user.

Angular

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We will use the Phase Two Angular example code here, but the logic could easily be applied to any existing application.

1. Clone the Phase Two example repo.
2. Open the Angular folder within /frameworks/angular.
3. Run npm install and then npm run start. This example leverages angular-oauth2-oidc OIDC methods.
4. We'll review where we configure out Keycloak instance. Open the src/app/auth.config.ts file. We will be updating a few values from the prior section where we set up our OIDC client. Taking the values from the OIDC Client Config section, set those values in the code.

export const authCodeFlowConfig: AuthConfig = {
  // Update this with the url and realm of your hosted Keycloak instance
  issuer: "https://app.phasetwo.io/auth/realms/p2examples",
  redirectUri: window.location.origin + "/index.html",
  // Update this to the Client ID you created in the OIDC Client section
  clientId: "angular",
  responseType: "code",
  scope: "openid profile email offline_access",
  showDebugInformation: true,
};

Those are used to configure the oauthService in the src/app/user/user.component.ts file. In the constructor of the component, this is passed in.

// ...
constructor(private oauthService: OAuthService) {
  this.oauthService.configure(authCodeFlowConfig);

  // required to initialize the client
  this.oauthService.loadDiscoveryDocumentAndTryLogin();
  this.oauthService.setupAutomaticSilentRefresh();

  this.oauthService.events
    .pipe(filter((e) => e.type === 'token_received'))
    .subscribe((_) => this.oauthService.loadUserProfile());
}

1. The UserActivation.component.ts file contains additional methods that will assist with the interaction of the html template. For handling login and logout, the following methods are used:

  signIn() {
    return this.oauthService.initLoginFlow();
  }

  signOut() {
    return this.oauthService.logOut();
  }

while we also define additional helper methods to get user information (username, email, etc) along with raw Token values. A couple are provided below as an example.

get userName(): string {
  const claims = this.oauthService.getIdentityClaims();
  if (!claims) return '';
  return claims['given_name'];
}

get idToken(): string {
  const token = this.oauthService.getIdToken();
  if (token) {
    return this.decodeAndStringifyToken(token);
  }
  return '';
}

1. Switching to the html template for the user component, src/app/user/user.component.html, we can see how the login and logout buttons are rendered. The buttons are conditionally rendered based on the user's authentication status based on the presence of the idToken.

<div *ngIf="idToken">
  <!-- show user data -->
  <!-- show logout button -->
</div>
<div *ngIf="!idToken">
  <!-- show login button -->
</div>

The logic using the authenticator to conditionally determine the Authenticated state, can be used to secure routes, components, and more.

1. Open localhost:4200. You will see the Phase Two example landing page. You current state should be Not authenticated. Click Log In. This will redirect you to your login page.

   INFO
   Use the non-admin user created in the previous section to sign in.

2. Enter the credentials of the non-admin user you created. Click Submit. You will then be redirected to the application. The Phase Two example landing page now loads your Authenticated state, displaying your user's email and name.

3. Neat! If you clear the browser state for that tab, then you will have to be redirected away to sign-in again.

Learning more

Phase Two's enhanced Keycloak provides many ways to quickly control and tweak the log in and user management experience. Our blog has many use cases from customizing login pages, setting up magic links (password-less sign in), and Organization workflows.