Now that your application is registered with Chart, it’s time to integrate Chart Connect into your application’s frontend. Chart Connect is the user-facing authentication flow that allows your users to securely input their tax system credentials to establish a connection with their provider. This prerequisite step is crucial before obtaining access tokens to make API requests.

Chart Connect is configurable with the following parameters:

ParameterRequiredDescription
client_idtrueYour client_id, a unique identifier for your application.
redirect_uriredirect onlyThe URI your user is redirected to after successfully granting your application access to their system. This value must match one of your application’s configured redirect URIs.
stateoptionalAn optional value included as a query parameter in the response back to your application. This value is often used to identify a user and/or prevent cross-site request forgery.

Chart provides two options to setup Chart Connect: Redirect or Embedded.

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Implementing Chart Connect in your application

  1. Choose your preferred flow: Chart provides several Frontend SDKs for easy integration. Select the SDK that best suits your application’s technology stack. Otherwise, you can use the Redirect flow.

    • React SDK: If you’re using React as your frontend framework, use the React SDK. Import the Chart Connect component and include it in your application. You can find examples and usage instructions in the SDK documentation or continue to follow this tutorial.

      • npm install --save @chartapi/react-connect
      • yarn add @chartapi/react-connect

    • JavaScript SDK: If you’re using a different frontend framework or vanilla JavaScript, use the pure JavaScript SDK. Include the Chart Connect library in your application, either by adding a script tag to your HTML file or by importing it as a module.

      • <script src="https://cdn.trychartapi.com/script.js"></script>

        Since Chart Connect is an iFrame that requires interactivity, the HTML page that is loading Chart Connect must be served from a server. If the page is hosted statically, Chart Connect will not work properly.

    • Redirect Flow: The redirect flow is helpful in instances where you do not have a user interface (such as a link in an email) or you prefer to redirect in order to not host the authorization experience yourself.

  2. Configure Chart Connect: Every flow requires you to configure Chart Connect with your unique client_id. You can find this client_id in your Chart Developer Dashboard.

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Redirect to Chart Connect

In this method of integrating Chart Connect, your application redirects your user’s browser to Chart Connect hosted by Chart on https://connect.trychartapi.com. After a successful connection, Chart Connect will redirect your user back to a URI you specified (redirect_uri) with a short-lived authorization code.

Set the redirect_uri parameter to the URL where users will be redirected after completing the authentication flow. The redirect_uri must be set in the Chart Developer Dashboard. Otherwise, the request will fail.

https://connect.trychartapi.com?
client_id=<your_client_id>
&redirect_uri=https://example.com

The redirect authorization flow consists of four steps:

  1. Open Chart Connect — Your application redirects your user’s browser to Chart Connect to initiate the authorization flow.
  2. Obtain consent — Chart Connect prompts your user to log in to their tax system and grant your application access to the permissions you are requesting.
  3. Retrieve the authorization code — If your user successfully connects and grants your application access to their system, Chart Connect will redirect their browser to a specified redirect_uri with a short-lived authorization code.
  4. Exchange the code for an access token — Before sending API requests, your application will exchange the short-lived code for a long-lived access_token that represents your application’s access to your user’s tax system.

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Embedded Chart Connect

The Chart-provided SDK embeds the Chart Connect screen into your application. The user will remain entirely on your application throughout the process. When the onSuccess event is called by the SDK, simply pass the code to your internal callback endpoint as a query parameter.

NOTE: You should not include a redirect_uri if using the embedded flow. Because the entire flow is already self-contained in your app, no redirect is necessary.

Implement the authentication flow: Add a button or a link in your application that triggers the Chart Connect flow. Users will click this button or link to start the authentication process.

Listen for events: Chart Connect emits events that your application should listen for to handle the different stages of the authentication process. The two most important events are onSuccess and onError.

  1. onSuccess: This event is triggered when the user completes the authentication process. It returns an authorization code that you will use to obtain an access_token in the next step. Pass this authorization code securely and temporarily to the access token exchange function.
  2. onError: This event is triggered if there’s an issue during the authentication process. Your application should handle this error gracefully, either by displaying an error message to the user or retrying the authentication flow.
  3. onClose: This event is triggered when a user exits the Chart Connect model, either by closing the modal or clicking outside the modal.

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Checkpoint + Next Step

After completing this step, you will have successfully integrated Chart Connect into your application’s frontend. This will enable users to authenticate with their tax systems, providing your application with the necessary authorization to obtain an access token in the next step.

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Learn more

  • Chart SDKs

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