I'm building a customer portal and need auth, roles, and data tables

Absolutely — a customer portal usually needs three core pieces:

1. Authentication — sign up, sign in, password reset, session handling
2. Roles / permissions — e.g. customer, support, admin
3. Data tables — lists like orders, invoices, users, tickets, etc.

Here’s a solid way to structure it.

Recommended setup

Auth

Use:

• Email + password
• Optional: magic links or SSO
• JWT or session cookies depending on your stack

Core auth features:

• Register / login / logout
• Email verification
• Password reset
• Refresh tokens or rotating sessions
• Rate limiting and account lockout

Roles

Start with a simple RBAC model:

• customer: can only view their own data
• support: can view customer records and manage tickets
• admin: full access

If you need finer control later, add permissions like:

• orders.read
• orders.update
• users.manage
• billing.view

Data tables

For the portal UI, use tables with:

• sorting
• filtering
• pagination
• row actions
• bulk actions
• server-side querying for scale

Typical portal tables:

• Users
• Orders
• Invoices
• Support tickets
• Subscriptions
• Activity logs

Basic architecture

Database tables

You’ll likely want:

• users
• roles
• user_roles or users.role
• sessions or refresh_tokens
• domain tables like orders, tickets, invoices

Example role setup:

• users.id
• users.email
• users.password_hash
• users.role
  or, for multiple roles:
• roles.id
• roles.name
• user_roles.user_id
• user_roles.role_id

Frontend

For data tables, popular options:

• TanStack Table if you want full control
• AG Grid if you need a powerful enterprise table
• DataTables for simpler traditional apps

For auth UI:

• login page
• forgot password page
• reset password page
• invite user page if admins create accounts

Security checklist

• Hash passwords with Argon2 or bcrypt
• Store sessions securely in HTTP-only cookies
• Enforce CSRF protection if using cookies
• Validate all inputs
• Use server-side authorization checks on every request
• Don’t rely only on frontend role hiding

If you want a fast implementation

A common stack is:

• Next.js frontend
• PostgreSQL
• Prisma
• NextAuth/Auth.js or custom auth
• TanStack Table

If you tell me your stack, I can give you:

• a database schema
• auth flow
• role middleware
• a reusable data table component

If you'd like, I can also generate a complete starter architecture for your portal.