Layer publishes pre-built UI components to npm that can be dropped into any existing React app. These components handle all integration with Layer’s API with the exception of authentication, which must be done on your backend to avoid exposing credentials in your client-side apps. See the Embedded Components section for a full list of components and pre-built Layouts.

​
React setup

1

Install Layer components

The first step of using Layer’s embedded components is to install the layerfi/components package via npm and your preferred package manager.

npm install @layerfi/components --save

yarn install @layerfi/components
2

Set up LayerProvider context

Next, set up the LayerProvider context, which serves as the configuration for fetching data for an individual business. All individual UX components must be rendered within this context.

For local testing, you can use your Layer sandbox credentials (APP_ID and APP_SECRET).

import { LayerProvider } from "@layerfi/components";

  <LayerProvider
    businessId={process.env.REACT_APP_BUSINESS_ID ?? ''}
    environment={process.env.REACT_APP_ENVIRONMENT ?? ''}
    appId={process.env.REACT_APP_APP_ID ?? ''}
    appSecret={process.env.REACT_APP_APP_SECRET ?? ''}
  >
  {...}
</LayerProvider>

In production, you should use access tokens scoped to a specific business. See the backend configuration section below for steps to retrieve scoped tokens:

import { LayerProvider } from "@layerfi/components";

  <LayerProvider
    businessId={process.env.REACT_APP_BUSINESS_ID ?? ''}
    environment={process.env.REACT_APP_ENVIRONMENT ?? ''}
    businessAccessToken={'<scoped business token>'}
  >
  {...}
</LayerProvider>
3

Modify component styles to align with your brand

Option 1: Set primary colors in theme configuration

You can set a dark and light theme color for all components. We recommend starting with simple customization like this using rgb, hsl or hex colors.

  <LayerProvider
    businessId={process.env.REACT_APP_BUSINESS_ID ?? ''}
    environment={process.env.REACT_APP_ENVIRONMENT ?? ''}
    appId={process.env.REACT_APP_APP_ID ?? ''}
    appSecret={process.env.REACT_APP_APP_SECRET ?? ''}
    theme={{
      dark: { r: '28', g: '26%', b: '11%' },
      light: { hex: '#F9A171'},
    }}
  >
  {...}
</LayerProvider>

Option 2: Customize CSS variables

For more flexible customization, CSS variables are exposed to allow you to set colors and styles for the embedded components. We recommend setting these variables within a scoped container to isolate the scope to Layer components. In this example, we’ve set variables within the .layer-container class.

  body .layer-container {
    --color-black: #1a1a1a;
    --color-white: white;
    --color-neutral: #666666;
    --color-neutral-50: #fafcfc;
    --color-neutral-200: #eef0ef;
    --color-neutral-700: #636665;
    --color-red: #e46362;
    --color-info-green: #29bc9b;

    --color-primary: var(--color-black);
    --color-accent: var(--color-white);
    --color-secondary: var(--color-neutral);
    --color-success: var(--color-info-green);
    --color-danger: var(--color-red);
    --text-color-primary: var(--color-black);
    --text-color-secondary: var(--color-neutral-700);
    --bg-element-focus: var(--color-neutral-50);

    --font-family: "InterVariable", "Inter", sans-serif;
    --font-family-numeric: "InterVariable", "Inter", sans-serif;
    --text-sm: 12px;
    --text-md: 14px;
    --text-heading: 24px;
    --font-weight-normal: 460;
    --font-weight-bold: 580;
    --spacing-sm: 12px;
    --spacing-md: 16px;
    --spacing-2xl: 36px;
    --border-color: var(--color-neutral-200);
  }
4

Add components to your pages

Finally, add components to your pages as you would any React component.

<BankTransactions />

Some components have multiple sub components which can be optionally included for composition and layout customization.

<ProfitAndLoss>
  <div className='profit-and-loss__chart-container'>
    <ProfitAndLoss.Chart />
  </div>
  <ProfitAndLoss.Summaries />
  <div className='profit-and-loss__date-picker-container'>
    <ProfitAndLoss.DatePicker />
  </div>
  <ProfitAndLoss.Table />
</ProfitAndLoss>

Type definitions are available for all components to assist with discovering options & subcomponents.

​
Backend setup

To ensure an end user can only access their own data, the Layer component must be provided with a scoped access token which limits access to a specific business. This is a two step process.

1

Obtain your platform-wide access token

Use your Layer-provided client_id and client_secret to obtain a platform-wide access token. See Authentication for more information on this process. This should be done server-side to avoid exposing your credentials in your client-side application.

2

Retrieve a business-scope access token

Next, send a request to the Business Access Token endpoint, including the business ID in the business_id URL parameter. By default, the token’s session duration is set to one hour, but you can customize this by specifying the session_duration parameter (in seconds) up to 24 hours.

You’ll receive a new access token that can only make requests for the selected business.

{
  "access_token": "<access_token>",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}
3

Populate access token in LayerProvider context

Finally, send this access token to the frontend and populate it in the businessAccessToken field of the LayerProvidercontext:

<LayerProvider
  businessId="<layer_business_id>"
  businessAccessToken="<access_token>"
  environment={'sandbox'}
>
  {...}
</LayerProvider>
Initial SetupOnboarding a Business