How to build SendGrid Email passwordless sign-in with WordPress plugin

For our new friends:

Logto is an Auth0 alternative designed for modern apps and SaaS products. It offers both Cloud and Open-source services to help you quickly launch your identity and management (IAM) system. Enjoy authentication, authorization, and multi-tenant management all in one.

We recommend starting with a free development tenant on Logto Cloud. This allows you to explore all the features easily.

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

Prerequisites

A running Logto instance. Check out the introduction page to get started.
Basic knowledge of WordPress plugin.
A usable SendGrid account.

Create an application in Logto

Logto is based on OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication and OAuth 2.0 authorization. It supports federated identity management across multiple applications, commonly called Single Sign-On (SSO).

To create your Traditional web application, simply follow these steps:

Open the Logto Console. In the "Get started" section, click the "View all" link to open the application frameworks list. Alternatively, you can navigate to Logto Console > Applications, and click the "Create application" button.
In the opening modal, click the "Traditional web" section or filter all the available "Traditional web" frameworks using the quick filter checkboxes on the left. Click the "WordPress" framework card to start creating your application.
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 WordPress with Logto

Install the plugin

info:

At the moment, our plugin is still under review and not available in the WordPress plugin directory. We'll update this page once it's available.

From upload

Download the Logto WordPress plugin from one of the following links:
- Latest release: Download the file which name in the format of logto-plugin-<version>.zip.
Download the plugin ZIP file.
Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress admin panel.
Click Upload Plugin.
Select the downloaded ZIP file and click Install Now.
Click Activate.

Configure the plugin

Now you should be able to see the Logto menu in your WordPress admin panel sidebar. Click Logto > Settings to configure the plugin.

note:

You should have a traditional web application created in Logto Console before configuring the plugin. If you haven't created one, please refer to Integrate Logto into your application for more information.

The minimum configuration to get started for the plugin is:

Logto endpoint: The endpoint of your Logto tenant.
App ID: The app ID of your Logto application.
App secret: One of the valid app secrets of your Logto application.

All values can be found on the application details page in Logto Console.

After filling in the values, click Save Changes (scroll down to the bottom of the page if you can't find the button).

Configure redirect URI

The redirect URI is the URL to which Logto will redirect users after they have authenticated; and the post sign-out redirect URI is the URL to which Logto will redirect users after they have logged out.

Here's a non-normative sequence diagram to illustrate the sign-in flow:

Here's how the sign-out flow looks like in a non-normative sequence diagram:

To learn more about why redirect is needed, see Sign-in experience explained.

In our case, we need to configure both redirect URIs in your Logto Console. To find the redirect URI, go to the Logto > Settings page in your WordPress admin panel. You'll see the Redirect URI and Post sign-out redirect URI fields.

Copy the Redirect URI and Post sign-out redirect URI values and paste them into the Redirect URIs and Post sign-out redirect URIs fields in your Logto Console.
Click Save changes in Logto Console.

Checkpoint: Test your WordPress website

Now you can test your Logto integration in your WordPress website:

Open an incognito browser window if needed.
Visit your WordPress website and click the Log in link if applicable; or directly visit the login page (e.g., https://example.com/wp-login.php).
The page should redirect you to the Logto sign-in page.
Complete the sign-in or sign-up process.
After successful authentication, you should be redirected back to your WordPress website and logged in automatically.
Click the Log out link to log out of your WordPress website.
You should be redirected to the Logto sign-out page, then back to your WordPress website.
You should be logged out of your WordPress website.

To learn more about the WordPress plugin settings, see WordPress quick start.

Add SendGrid connector

Email connector is a method used to send one-time passwords (OTPs) for authentication. It enables Email address verification to support passwordless authentication, including Email-based registration, sign-in, two-factor authentication (2FA), and account recovery. You can easily connect SendGrid as your Email provider. With the Logto Email connector, you can set this up in just a few minutes.

To add a Email connector, simply follow these steps:

Navigate to Console > Connector > Email and SMS connectors.
To add a new Email connector, click the "Set up" button and select "SendGrid".
Review the README documentation for your selected provider.
Complete the configuration fields in the "Parameter Configuration" section.
Customize the Email template using the JSON editor.
Test your configuration by sending a verification code to your Email address.

note:

If you are following the in-place Connector 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 got 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.

Once you create a connector successfully, you can enable phone number-based passwordless login and registration.

Navigate to Console > Sign-in experience > Sign-up and sign-in.
Set up sign-up methods (Optional):
1. Select "Email address" or "Email or phone number" as the sign-up identifier.
2. "Verify at sign-up" is forced to be enabled. You can also enable "Create a password" on registration.
Set up sign-in methods:
1. Select Email address as one of sign-in identifiers. You can provide multiple available identifiers (email, phone number, and username).
2. Select "Verification code" and / or "Password" as the authentication factor.
Click "Save changes" and test it in "Live preview".

In addition to registration and login via OTPs, you can also have password recovery and -based security verification enabled, as well as linking Email address to profile. See End-user flows for more details.

Testing and Validation

Return to your WordPress plugin app. You should now be able to sign in with SendGrid. Enjoy!

Create an application in Logto​

Integrate WordPress with Logto​

Install the plugin​

Configure the plugin​

Configure redirect URI​

Checkpoint: Test your WordPress website​

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​