[4 Steps] Django Social Login with Facebook

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to create a Django social login with a Facebook feature for your Django project.

A social login feature can be a good add-on for many types of projects. With a simple social login, you can create a membership website, user profile, track user behavior, and whatnot…

At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to develop a User authentication Django project as below.

As you are reading this tutorial, either you are learning to add social login features in Django or you are working on your project where you want to add social login features.

If you are learning, let’s start from scratch and follow this tutorial until the end. If you are interested in learning, just don’t read. Open your favorite editor or IDE and start developing along with me.

If you already have a Django project where you want to add a social login feature, skip step 1. And start from step 2.

Let’s begin.

How to implement Django social login with Facebook feature?

1. Setting Django Project

As I said earlier, if you already have a project setup, skip this step.

• Create one folder/ directory where you will store all source code.
• Create a virtual environment for your project by running the below command in the terminal or command prompt.

$ python -m venv env

I’m not talking about the virtual environment in detail as it is not part of this tutorial. If you are new to the virtual environment, you can read the virtual environment in Python to get a better insight.

• Now, activate your virtual environment.

For Windows users, open the command prompt and run the below command.

$ cd env
$ .\Scripts\Activate

For Linux users, open the terminal and run the below command.

$ cd env
$ ./Scripts/Activate

Your virtual environment is up and running.

• Install Django in your virtual environment.

$ pip install django

It will install the latest Django Python module.

After installation, you can check all the install libraries using pip command.

$ pip freeze

You can see the Django project is installed.

asgiref==3.2.7
Django==3.0.5
pytz==2019.3
sqlparse==0.3.1

• Create your Django project. You can give it any suitable name. For simplicity, I’m naming it as my_project.

$ django-admin startproject my_project
$ cd my_project

You can see a new folder is created with the project name.

• Now create a new Django app for social login and authentication called a prime (You can name it anything).

$ python manage.py startapp prime

Update settings.py to add a new app in your project setting.

Add a new app to the INSTALLED_APPS list.

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'prime',  #newly added 
]

• Start the server with a simple command.

python manage.py runserver

If you don’t see any error, your Django server is up and running.

Open the browser and run the localhost URL.

http://localhost:8000/

Congratulation!

You have installed Django successfully. Your project is up and running.

This step is well explained in the Django project tutorial for beginners.

2. Install and Set the Social Authentication Module

In this Django social login with Facebook tutorial, we are using the social-auth-app-django Python module for social authentication.

This Python library has already defined all the required functionality for social login. You don’t need to write the functionality from scratch.

• Install the social-auth-app-django module.

$ pip install social-auth-app-django

If you use pip freeze command it will list all the installed modules where you can see the social-auth-app-django installed on your system. It also installs other dependent modules.

$ pip freeze

asgiref==3.2.7
certifi==2020.4.5.1
cffi==1.14.0
chardet==3.0.4
cryptography==2.9
defusedxml==0.6.0
Django==3.0.5
idna==2.9
oauthlib==3.1.0
pycparser==2.20
PyJWT==1.7.1
python3-openid==3.1.0
pytz==2019.3
requests==2.23.0
requests-oauthlib==1.3.0
six==1.14.0
social-auth-app-django==3.1.0
social-auth-core==3.3.3
sqlparse==0.3.1
urllib3==1.25.8

It also installs Django if it is not installed earlier as a dependency.

Update the INSTALLED_APP in the settings.py to register the library in your project:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'prime',
'social_django', #newly added
]

• Finally, let’s migrate the database.

py manage.py migrate

When you run this command, you can see all the performed operations on the database.

py manage.py migrate
Operations to perform:
Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
Applying contenttypes.0001_initial… OK
Applying auth.0001_initial… OK
Applying admin.0001_initial… OK
Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add… OK
Applying admin.0003_logentry_add_action_flag_choices… OK
Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name… OK
Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length… OK
Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length… OK
Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts… OK
Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null… OK
Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002… OK
Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages… OK
Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length… OK
Applying auth.0009_alter_user_last_name_max_length… OK
Applying auth.0010_alter_group_name_max_length… OK
Applying auth.0011_update_proxy_permissions… OK
Applying sessions.0001_initial… OK

• Set the order for authentication.

There can be multiple authentications for the user. Users can login app through different social media applications like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

You can order these authentication methods. If the first authentication method fails, Django tries the second one, and so on.

By default, there is a single authentication method as

['django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend']

You can check this setting inside settings.py.

Add new authentication methods with your preference order in setting.py.

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
  'social_core.backends.facebook.FacebookOAuth2'
  'social_core.backends.linkedin.LinkedinOAuth2',
  'social_core.backends.instagram.InstagramOAuth2,
  'django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend',
]

In the above setting, the order of authentication is Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and then Django basic authentication.

3. Adding Templates and Static Files

• Create a new folder “templates” in your app (prime). All the required templates and HTML files will be saved in this folder.

$ cd prime/
$ mkdir templates/

We require three files.

• base.html
  This is the base file that is used to add headers and extend other files.
• login.html
  This is the login page where users can see all the login options.
• home.html
  This is the home page where the user will be redirected after login.

Create these three files and save them in the folder “templates”.

You also need a style sheet to organize and style content in the HTML files.

• index.css

Create index.css file inside prime/static/css folder.

Open base.html and copy the below HTML code in the file.

<!-- templates/base.html -->

    {% load static %}
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge" />
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.3/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-MCw98/SFnGE8fJT3GXwEOngsV7Zt27NXFoaoApmYm81iuXoPkFOJwJ8ERdknLPMO"
            crossorigin="anonymous" />
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static 'css/index.css' %}" />
        <title>Social Auth with Django</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="container-fluid">
            <div>
                <h1 class="text-white text-center">{% block title %}{% endblock %}</h1>
                <div class="card p-5">
                    {% block content %}
                    {% endblock %}
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </body>
    </html>

This is simple HTML code.

Open home.html and copy below HTML code into the files.

<!-- templates/home.html -->

{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% block title %} Home {% endblock %}
{% block content %}
<div class="row">
    <div class="col-sm-12 mb-3">
        <h4 class="text-center"> Welcome {{ user.username }} </h4>
    </div>
 </div>
{% endblock %}

Similarly, copy below HTML code for login.html.

<!-- templates/login.html -->

{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% block title %} User Authentication {% endblock %}
{% block content %}
<div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-8 mx-auto social-container my-2 order-md-1">
        <button class="btn btn-primary mb-2">
            <a href="#">Login with Facebook</a>
        </button>
        <button class="btn btn-info mb-2">
                <a href="#">Login with LinkedIn</a>
        </button>
        <button class="btn btn-danger  mb-2">
            <a href="#">Login with Instagram</a>
        </button>
    </div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

You need to add CSS code to style HTML tags. Add the below code to index.css.

/_ index.css _/

img {
  border: 3px solid #282c34;
}
.container-fluid {
  height: 100vh;
  background-color: #282c34;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}
.container-fluid > div {
  width: 85%;
  min-width: 300px;
  max-width: 500px;
}
.card {
  width: 100%;
}
.social-container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: center;
}
.btn a, .btn a:hover {
  color: white;
  text-decoration: none ;
}

Keep this style sheet as it is right now. Later you can change it as you want.

• Setting up the Views and URLs.

Open prime/views.py and copy-paste the below code into the file.

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required

def login(request):
	return render(request, 'login.html')

@login_required
def home(request):
	return render(request, 'home.html')

We have to set the URL so that when the user hits the URL, appropriate views will be called.

Set the URL in my_project/urls.py file. Here is the code.

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
from django.contrib.auth import views as auth_views
from prime import views

urlpatterns = [
  path('admin/', admin.site.urls),         
  path("login/", views.login, name="login"),
  path("logout/", auth_views.LogoutView.as_view(), name="logout"),
  path('social-auth/', include('social_django.urls', namespace="social")),
  path("", views.home, name="home"),
]

Now you have to set all the required paths for user authentication. The social auth module has the following variable defined.

• LOGIN_URL
  URL for the login page.
• LOGOUT_URL
  URL for logout page
• LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL
  URL where the user will get redirected after login.
• LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL
  URL where the user will get redirected after logging out.

Open my_project/settings.py file and set these URL variables.

Add the below lines of code at the end of the setting file.

LOGIN_URL = 'login'
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = 'home'
LOGOUT_URL = 'logout'
LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL = 'login'

Wow! Your job is done.

Let’s see how it works.

Start the project using runserver command.

python manage.py runserver

Opne URL in browser tab.

 http://localhost:8000/

It will redirect you to the login page. which looks like this.

Your job is not yet complete. If you click on any of these buttons to log in, the login feature does not work.

You have to authenticate and connect your social media with the Django app.

4. Facebook Authentication

This is the final step in Django social login with the Facebook tutorial.

• Create a developer account on Facebook.

Login to your Facebook account in the browser and then open a developer account.

Here is the URL for the Facebook developer account.

https://developers.facebook.com/apps

• Click on Add a New App.
• Set Display Name and Contact Email for the new app.
• Click on Create App ID.
• Open the newly created app.

Go to setting > basics. And set the App Domains as localhost.

Scroll till the end. You will find the option to set up the website. Add the localhost URL in the website field as below.

http://localhost:8000/

Save the changes.

• Now you need to connect your Facebook app with your Django project.

Copy app ID and secret key. And set those values in social_app/settings.py as below.

SOCIAL_AUTH_FACEBOOK_KEY = YOUR_APP_KRY # App ID
SOCIAL_AUTH_FACEBOOK_SECRET = YOUR_APP_SECRET # App Secret

Update the Facebook login link in login.html.

<button class="btn btn-primary mb-2">
<a href="{% url 'social:begin' 'facebook' %}">Login with Facebook</a>
</button>

• Run Your Django Project.

Now start the web server with the below command.

python manage.py runserver

Visit the login page in the browser using the localhost URL.

localhost:8000/login 

It will look like this in the browser.

Click on Log with Facebook and follow the steps.

After login, you will be redirected to the home page.

You can see the username read from the Facebook profile on the screen.

Here, I log in using my personal Facebook account.

Awesome!

How to access Email ID, and Picture from Facebook?

You have to set the parameters you want to read from Facebook.

Open setting.py and add the following setting.

SOCIAL_AUTH_FACEBOOK_SCOPE = ['email', 'user_link']
SOCIAL_AUTH_FACEBOOK_PROFILE_EXTRA_PARAMS = {
  'fields': 'id, name, email, picture.type(large), link'
}
SOCIAL_AUTH_FACEBOOK_EXTRA_DATA = [
    ('name', 'name'),
    ('email', 'email'),
    ('picture', 'picture'),
    ('link', 'profile_url'),
]

Also, add context_processor to access the data.

TEMPLATES = [
 {
   'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
   'DIRS': [],
   'APP_DIRS': True,
   'OPTIONS': {
     'context_processors': [
       'django.template.context_processors.debug',
       'django.template.context_processors.request',
       'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
       'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
       'social_django.context_processors.backends', # added
       'social_django.context_processors.login_redirect', # added
     ],
   },
 },
]

In the above setting, we are asking the user to provide an email ID, profile picture, name, and the profile link from the Facebook account.

When a user logs in, the admin can see all this information inside the admin panel under the “user social auth” instance as “Extra data”.

Update home.html page to display the user profile on the home page.

<!-- home.html -->

{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% block title %} User Profile {% endblock %}
{% block content %}
<div class="row">
  <div class="col-sm-12 mb-3">
    <h4 class="text-center">Welcome {{ user.username }}</h4>
  </div>

  {% for ass in backends.associated %}
  {% if ass.provider == 'facebook' %}
  <div class="col-md-6 text-center">
    <img src="{{ass.extra_data.picture.data.url}}" alt="" width="150" height="150" style="border-radius: 50%">
  </div>
  <div class="col-md-6 social-container my-2">                 
    <p> You're Signed in via {{ ass.provider }} </p>
    <p> Your Name:  {{ ass.extra_data.name }} </p>
    <p> Profile URL: <a href="{{ass.extra_data.profile_url}}">link</a></p>
  </div>
  {% endif %}
  {% endfor %}
  <div class="col-sm-12 mt-2 text-center">
    <button class="btn btn-danger">
      <a href="{% url 'logout' %}">Logout</a>
    </button>
  </div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

• Run the Django project again.

python manage.py runserver

Now visit your localhost home page once again (http://localhost:8000/).

You can see all user details with name, profile picture, and link to the Facebook profile.

Awesome!

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned to implement social login authentication in Django using social-auth-app-django Python library.

You can add this social login feature in any of your projects where you need to authenticate the user.

This is all about the complete tutorial on Django’s social login with Facebook. If you have any questions or if you are finding it difficult to implement, let me know in the comments.

Aniruddha Chaudhari

I am a Python enthusiast who loves Linux and Vim. I hold a Master of Computer Science degree from NIT Trichy and have 10 years of experience in the IT industry, focusing on the Software Development Lifecycle from Requirements Gathering, Design, Development to Deployment. I have worked at IBM, Ericsson, and NetApp, and I share my knowledge on CSEstack.org.