How to build SendGrid Email passwordless sign-in with .NET Core (Blazor WebAssembly) and Logto

December 22, 2024 · 2 min read

The better identity infrastructure for developers

For our new friends:

Every app needs authentication and authorization. Logto is an Auth0 alternative designed for modern apps and SaaS products.

In this article, we will go through the steps to quickly build the SendGrid sign-in experience (user authentication) with .NET Core (Blazor WebAssembly) and Logto.

Prerequisites

A running Logto instance. Check out the introduction page to get started.
Basic knowledge of .NET Core (Blazor WebAssembly).
A usable SendGrid account.

Create an application in Logto

In you browser, open a new tab and enter the link of Logto Admin Console.

Get Started

Once the page is loaded, in the "Get Started" section click the View all link to open the application framework list page.

Choose your application type

Framework List

In the opening modal, scroll to the "Single page app" section or filter all the available " Single page app" frameworks using the quick filter checkboxes on the left.

Click the ".NET Core (Blazor WebAssembly)" framework card to start creating your application.

Enter application name

Enter the application name, e.g., "Bookstore," and click "Create application."

🎉 Ta-da! You just created your first application in Logto. You'll see a congrats page which includes a detailed integration guide. Follow the guide to see what the experience will be in your application.

Integrate Logto SDK

tip:

The following demonstration is built on .NET Core 8.0 and Blorc.OpenIdConnect.
The .NET Core sample projects are available in the GitHub repository.

Installation

Add the NuGet package to your project:

dotnet add package Blorc.OpenIdConnect

Add script references

Include Blorc.Core/injector.js the index.html file:

index.html
<head>
  <!-- ... -->
  <script src="_content/Blorc.Core/injector.js"></script>
  <!-- ... -->
</head>

Register services

Add the following code to the Program.cs file:

Program.cs
using Blorc.OpenIdConnect;
using Blorc.Services;

builder.Services.AddBlorcCore();
builder.Services.AddAuthorizationCore();
builder.Services.AddBlorcOpenIdConnect(
    options =>
    {
        builder.Configuration.Bind("IdentityServer", options);
    });

var webAssemblyHost = builder.Build();

await webAssemblyHost
    .ConfigureDocumentAsync(async documentService =>
    {
        await documentService.InjectBlorcCoreJsAsync();
        await documentService.InjectOpenIdConnectAsync();
    });

await webAssemblyHost.RunAsync();

info:

There's no need to use the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebAssembly.Authentication package. The Blorc.OpenIdConnect package will take care of the authentication process.

Configure redirect URIs

Before we dive into the details, here's a quick overview of the end-user experience. The sign-in process can be simplified as follows:

Your app invokes the sign-in method.
The user is redirected to the Logto sign-in page. For native apps, the system browser is opened.
The user signs in and is redirected back to your app (configured as the redirect URI).

This authentication process follows the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol, and Logto enforces strict security measures to protect user sign-in.
If you have multiple apps, you can use the same identity provider (Logto). Once the user signs in to one app, Logto will automatically complete the sign-in process when the user accesses another app.

To learn more about the rationale and benefits of redirect-based sign-in, see Logto sign-in experience explained.

note:

In the following code snippets, we assume your app is running on http://localhost:3000/.

Configure redirect URIs

Switch to the application details page of Logto Console. Add a redirect URI http://localhost:3000/callback.

Just like signing in, users should be redirected to Logto for signing out of the shared session. Once finished, it would be great to redirect the user back to your website. For example, add http://localhost:3000/ as the post sign-out redirect URI section.

Then click "Save" to save the changes.

Configure application

Add the following code to the appsettings.json file:

appsettings.json
{
// ...
IdentityServer: {
  Authority: 'https://<your-logto-endpoint>/oidc',
  ClientId: '<your-logto-app-id>',
  PostLogoutRedirectUri: 'http://localhost:3000/',
  RedirectUri: 'http://localhost:3000/callback',
  ResponseType: 'code',
  Scope: 'openid profile', // Add more scopes if needed
},
}

Remember to add the RedirectUri and PostLogoutRedirectUri to the list of allowed redirect URIs in the Logto application settings. They are both the URL of your WASM application.

Add `AuthorizeView` component

In the Razor pages that require authentication, add the AuthorizeView component. Let's assume it's the Home.razor page:

Pages/Home.razor
@using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Authorization
@page "/"

<AuthorizeView>
    <Authorized>
        @* Signed in view *@
        <button @onclick="OnLogoutButtonClickAsync">
            Sign out
        </button>
    </Authorized>
    <NotAuthorized>
        @* Unauthenticated view *@
        <button @onclick="OnLoginButtonClickAsync">
            Sign in
        </button>
    </NotAuthorized>
</AuthorizeView>

Set up authentication

In the Home.razor.cs file (create it if it doesn't exist), add the following code:

Pages/Home.razor.cs
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web;
using Blorc.OpenIdConnect;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Authorization;

[Authorize]
public partial class Home : ComponentBase
{
    [Inject]
    public required IUserManager UserManager { get; set; }

    public User<Profile>? User { get; set; }

    [CascadingParameter]
    protected Task<AuthenticationState>? AuthenticationStateTask { get; set; }

    protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
    {
        User = await UserManager.GetUserAsync<User<Profile>>(AuthenticationStateTask!);
    }

    private async Task OnLoginButtonClickAsync(MouseEventArgs obj)
    {
        await UserManager.SignInRedirectAsync();
    }

    private async Task OnLogoutButtonClickAsync(MouseEventArgs obj)
    {
        await UserManager.SignOutRedirectAsync();
    }
}

Once the user is authenticated, the User property will be populated with the user information.

Checkpoint: Test your application

Now, you can test your application:

Run your application, you will see the sign-in button.
Click the sign-in button, the SDK will init the sign-in process and redirect you to the Logto sign-in page.
After you signed in, you will be redirected back to your application and see the sign-out button.
Click the sign-out button to clear local storage and sign out.

Test your integration:

Open your .NET Core (Blazor WASM) app to test if the integration works. When you click the "Sign In" button, the page should be redirected to a Logto sign-in page, and you should be able to create a new account by entering username and password and complete the sign-in process.

Add SendGrid connector

To add or change Email connector, go to the "Connector" tab in the Admin Console, then click on "Email and SMS connectors". From there, click "Set up" or go to detail page and click "Change Email connector".

Connector tab

In the openning modal, select "SendGrid" and click "Next".

On the next page, you will see a two-column layout with the README content on the left and configuration on the right.

Feel free to follow the README file in place or read the following section to complete the configuration process. If you follow the in-place guide, you can skip the next section.

Set up SendGrid email connector

Register SendGrid account

Create a new account at SendGrid website. You may skip this step if you've already registered an account.

Verify senders

Go to the SendGrid console page and sign in with your SendGrid account.

Senders indicate the addresses our verification code email will be sent from. In order to send emails via the SendGrid mail server, you need to verify at least one sender.

Starting from the SendGrid console page, go to "Settings" -> "Sender Authentication" from the sidebar.

Domain Authentication is recommended but not obligatory. You can click "Get Started" in "Authenticate Your Domain" card and follow the upcoming guide to link and verify a sender to SendGrid.

By clicking the "Verify a Single Sender" button in the panel, you are now focusing on a form requiring some critical information to create a sender. Follow the guide, fill out all these fields, and hit the "Create" button.

After the single sender is created, an email with a verification link should be sent to your sender's email address. Go to your mailbox, find the verification mail and finish verifying the single sender by clicking the link given in the email. You can now send emails via SendGrid connector using the sender you've just verified.

Create API keys

Let's start from the SendGrid console page, go to "Settings" -> "API Keys" from the sidebar.

Click the "Create API Key" in the top-right corner of the API Keys page. Type in the name of the API key and customize "API Key Permission" per your use case. A global Full Access or Restricted Access with full access to Mail Send is required before sending emails with this API key.

The API Key is presented to you on the screen as soon as you finished the Create API Key process. You should save this API Key somewhere safe because this is the only chance that you can see it.

Configure your connector

Fill out the apiKey field with the API Key created in "Create API keys" section.

Fill out the fromEmail and fromName fields with the senders' From Address and Nickname. You can find the sender's details on the "Sender Management" page. fromName is OPTIONAL, so you can skip filling it.

You can add multiple SendGrid mail connector templates for different cases. Here is an example of adding a single template:

Fill out the subject field, which works as the title of emails.
Fill out the content field with arbitrary string-typed contents. Do not forget to leave the {{code}} placeholder for the random verification code.
Fill out usageType field with either Register, SignIn, ForgotPassword, Generic for different use cases.
Fill out type field with either text/plain or text/html for different types of content.

In order to enable full user flows, templates with usageType Register, SignIn, ForgotPassword and Generic are required.

Here is an example of SendGrid connector template JSON.

[
  {
    "subject": "<register-template-subject>",
    "content": "<Logto: Your verification code is {{code}}. (register template)>",
    "usageType": "Register",
    "type": "text/plain",
  },
  {
    "subject": "<sign-in-template-subject>",
    "content": "<Logto: Your verification code is {{code}}. (sign-in template)>",
    "usageType": "SignIn",
    "type": "text/plain",
  },
  {
    "subject": "<forgot-password-template-subject>",
    "content": "<Logto: Your verification code is {{code}}. (forgot-password template)>",
    "usageType": "ForgotPassword",
    "type": "text/plain",
  },
  {
    "subject": "<generic-template-subject>",
    "content": "<Logto: Your verification code is {{code}}. (generic template)>",
    "usageType": "Generic",
    "type": "text/plain",
  },
]

Test SendGrid Email connector

You can type in an email address and click on "Send" to see whether the settings can work before "Save and Done".

That's it. Don't forget to enable connector in sign-in experience.

Config types

Name	Type
apiKey	string
fromEmail	string
fromName	string (OPTIONAL)
templates	Template[]

Template Properties	Type	Enum values
subject	string	N/A
content	string	N/A
usageType	enum string	'Register' \| 'SignIn' \| 'ForgotPassword' \| 'Generic'
type	enum string	'text/plain' \| 'text/html'

Save your configuration

Double check you have filled out necessary values in the Logto connector configuration area. Click "Save and Done" (or "Save changes") and the SendGrid connector should be available now.

Switch to the "Sign-in experience" tab, then click the "Sign-up and sign-in" tab.

note:

If it's the first time you enter the tab, you will see a quick introduction about Sign-in Experience and its basic configuration.

Sign-in Experience tab

Select "Email address" or "Email address or phone number" for the "Sign-up identifier" to provide sign-up for Email passwordless sign-in, which may increase your conversion rate.

Save changes

Finally, click "Save changes" on the bottom right corner.

Testing and Validation

Return to your .NET Core (Blazor WebAssembly) app. You should now be able to sign in with SendGrid. Enjoy!

Create an application in Logto​

Choose your application type​

Enter application name​

Integrate Logto SDK​

Installation​

Add script references​

Register services​

Configure redirect URIs​

Regarding redirect-based sign-in​

Configure redirect URIs​

Configure application​

Add AuthorizeView component​

Set up authentication​

Checkpoint: Test your application​

Add SendGrid connector​

Set up SendGrid email connector​

Register SendGrid account​

Verify senders​

Create API keys​

Configure your connector​

Test SendGrid Email connector​

Config types​

Save your configuration​

Enable SendGrid connector in Sign-in Experience​

Testing and Validation​

Further readings​

Create an application in Logto

Choose your application type

Enter application name

Integrate Logto SDK

Installation

Add script references

Register services

Configure redirect URIs

Regarding redirect-based sign-in

Configure redirect URIs

Configure application

Add `AuthorizeView` component

Set up authentication

Checkpoint: Test your application

Add SendGrid connector

Set up SendGrid email connector

Register SendGrid account

Verify senders

Create API keys

Configure your connector

Test SendGrid Email connector

Config types

Save your configuration

Enable SendGrid connector in Sign-in Experience

Testing and Validation

Further readings