Automatic Logout
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π¦ Our app is not really the kind of app users would want to be automatically
logged out of, but we'll implement it anyway for the exercises.
π¨βπΌ When the user has been inactive for a while on the site, we want to log them
out automatically so they don't leave their account open on a publicly
accessible computer.
Kellie π§ββοΈ built us a
LogoutTimer component which sets up a timers and displays
a modal when the user has been inactive for a while. We just need to find a good
way to determine the user's activity. When they're active, we'll reset the
timer.There are various ways you can determine activity. Depending on the type of app
you have, you could track network requests, mouse movements, or keyboard
activity. For our app, we'll track navigations.
Whenever the user navigates with our router, the router creates a unique "key"
which is accessible on the
location object. We'll use this key to track
activity:const location = useLocation()
useEffect(() => {
console.log('location changed:', location.key)
}, [location.key])
If the
key changes, we can reset the timers.Another thing we'll want to consider is whether there is a user logged in at
all. We wouldn't want the timers to start if there is no user logged in. So
you'll need to address that situation as well.
When the modal shows up, we'll let the user remain on the site by clicking a
button which will close the modal and reset the timers. We'll also display a
logout button which they can click if they just want to logout immediately.
But the user might not be at their computer when the modal shows up. So we'll
have to log them out programmatically. This is called an imperative mutation.
To make this kind of a mutation, you can use the
useSubmit hook:const submit = useSubmit()
With this, you can submit a form programmatically:
// submit a form:
submit(someFormElement)
// submit without a form:
submit({ some: 'data' }, { method: 'POST', action: '/some/path' })
// submit with no data:
submit(null, { method: 'POST', action: '/some/path' })
That should be enough to get you going on this exercise.
π¦ I've hard coded some very short times for the timers so you don't have to
wait for two hours to see the modal π