Third-party cookie handling with embedded content

Note: Where possible, use qlik-embed rather than this framework. Review the tutorial embedding Qlik Analytics using qlik-embed web components.

Third-party cookies: This tutorial leverages cookies for auth, which are blocked by some browser vendors. Please use an OAuth solution where possible, which doesn’t leverage cookies.

Contributed by Daniel Pilla

Overview

Note: This tutorial provides sample code that uses OpenID Connect OIDC for authentication. If you are using JWT authorization, refer to this article.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to configure your Qlik embedded project to handle scenarios where your client’s browser does not support third-party cookies. Given that a Qlik Cloud tenant resides at *.*.qlikcloud.com, and your web page will not reside on that same domain (for example it might reside at analytics.company.com), this means that inherently, any embedded content from Qlik Cloud must handle third-party cookies, as Qlik Cloud relies on cookies for authentication.

Some browsers, by default, block third-party cookies. Furthermore, select browser modes (such as Chrome’s Incognito mode) and certain browser configurations also turn off support for third-party cookies. This sample code handles whether the user’s browser supports third-party cookies, which enables you to display a message (for example a nice modal) that the user will either have to modify their browser settings or try another browser to view the embedded Qlik content. Without this, the accessing user may perceive Qlik to be malfunctioning, as the embedded content will not render.

If you’re not familiar with third-party cookies, here’s a great blog to learn more.

Prerequisites

To use the example page in this tutorial, ensure that you have the following:

  • An existing application ID and sheet ID to embed.
  • A web integration configured that contains the location of the web page that will be embedding the Qlik Cloud application.
  • A content security policy entry with the frame-ancestors directive added for the location of the web page that will be embedding the Qlik Cloud application.

Variable substitution and vocabulary

Throughout this tutorial, variables will be used to communicate value placement. The variable substitution format is <VARIABLE_NAME>. Here is a list of variables that appear in the sample code.

VariableDescription
<TENANT>The domain for the tenant you are accessing. Equivalent to tenant.region.qlikcloud.com.
<WEB_INTEGRATION_ID>The unique identifier of the web integration.
<APP_ID>The unique identifier of the application.
<SHEET_ID>The unique identifier of the sheet.
<IDENTITY>An arbitrary string to establish a separate session state.

Note: The IDENTITY parameter can be used across iframes or other methods of embedding to tie and/or separate sessions accordingly. It is an optional parameter included in this example for illustrative purposes.

Sample code

The code example in this tutorial provides a basic, fully functional web page that places an iframe into a div after successfully logging in to Qlik Cloud. It showcases how to implement a custom message to alert the user if their browser does not support third-party cookies. Be sure to test your final customized message code in third-party cookie supported and unsupported modes to ensure the message appears when you expect it.

<html>

<body>
    <iframe id='qlik_frame' style='border:none;width:100%;height:800px;'></iframe>
    <script>
        const TENANT = '<tenant>.<region>.qlikcloud.com';
        const WEBINTEGRATIONID = '<web-integration-id>';
        const APPID = '<app-id>';
        const SHEETID = '<sheet-id>';
        const IDENTITY = '<identity>';

        (async function main() {
            const initQlikLogin = await qlikLogin();
            if (qlikLogin) {
                const frameSrc = `https://${TENANT}/single/?appid=${APPID}&sheet=${SHEETID}&identity=${IDENTITY}&opt=ctxmenu,currsel`;
                document.getElementById('qlik_frame').setAttribute('src', frameSrc);
            }

            async function qlikLogin() {
                const loggedIn = await fetch(`https://${TENANT}/api/v1/users/me`, {
                    mode: 'cors',
                    credentials: 'include',
                    headers: {
                        'qlik-web-integration-id': WEBINTEGRATIONID,
                    },
                })
                if (loggedIn.status !== 200) {
                    if (sessionStorage.getItem('tryQlikAuth') === null) {
                        sessionStorage.setItem('tryQlikAuth', 1);
                        window.location = `https://${TENANT}/login?qlik-web-integration-id=${WEBINTEGRATIONID}&returnto=${location.href}`;
                        return await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 10000)); // prevents further code execution
                    } else {
                        sessionStorage.removeItem('tryQlikAuth');
                        const message = 'Third-party cookies are not enabled in your browser settings and/or browser mode.';
                        alert(message); // replace alert with modal or otherwise
                        throw new Error(message);
                    }
                }
                sessionStorage.removeItem('tryQlikAuth');
                console.log('Logged in!');
                return true;
            }
        })()
    </script>
</body>

</html>
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