Build a User Management App with React

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a basic user management app. The app authenticates and identifies the user, stores their profile information in the database, and allows the user to log in, update their profile details, and upload a profile photo. The app uses:

• Supabase Database - a Postgres database for storing your user data and Row Level Security so data is protected and users can only access their own information.
• Supabase Auth - users log in through magic links sent to their email (without having to set up passwords).
• Supabase Storage - users can upload a profile photo.

Project setup#

Before we start building we're going to set up our Database and API. This is as simple as starting a new Project in Supabase and then creating a "schema" inside the database.

Create a project#

1. Create a new project in the Supabase Dashboard.
2. Enter your project details.
3. Wait for the new database to launch.

Set up the database schema#

Now we are going to set up the database schema. We can use the "User Management Starter" quickstart in the SQL Editor, or you can just copy/paste the SQL from below and run it yourself.

Get the API Keys#

Now that you've created some database tables, you are ready to insert data using the auto-generated API. We just need to get the Project URL and anon key from the API settings.

1. Go to the API Settings page in the Dashboard.
2. Find your Project URL, anon, and service_role keys on this page.

Building the app#

Let's start building the React app from scratch.

Initialize a React app#

We can use Vite to initialize an app called supabase-react:

Then let's install the only additional dependency: supabase-js.

And finally we want to save the environment variables in a .env.local file. All we need are the API URL and the anon key that you copied earlier.

Now that we have the API credentials in place, let's create a helper file to initialize the Supabase client. These variables will be exposed on the browser, and that's completely fine since we have Row Level Security enabled on our Database.

Create and edit src/supabaseClient.js:

App styling (optional)#

An optional step is to update the CSS file src/index.css to make the app look nice. You can find the full contents of this file here.

Set up a login component#

Let's set up a React component to manage logins and sign ups. We'll use Magic Links, so users can sign in with their email without using passwords.

Create and edit src/Auth.jsx:

Account page#

After a user is signed in we can allow them to edit their profile details and manage their account.

Let's create a new component for that called src/Account.jsx.

Launch!#

Now that we have all the components in place, let's update src/App.jsx:

Once that's done, run this in a terminal window:

And then open the browser to localhost:5173 and you should see the completed app.

Bonus: Profile photos#

Every Supabase project is configured with Storage for managing large files like photos and videos.

Create an upload widget#

Let's create an avatar for the user so that they can upload a profile photo. We can start by creating a new component:

Create and edit src/Avatar.jsx:

Add the new widget#

And then we can add the widget to the Account page at src/Account.jsx:

At this stage you have a fully functional application!