Laravel 8 REST API Authentication with JWT Tutorial by Example

Throughout this tutorial, we’ll be learning how to authenticate REST APIs using JWT in the latest Laravel 8 version. You will learn how to create a REST API using Laravel 8 with JWT authentication.

We’ll see how to set up JWT authentication in Laravel 8 and implement a secured REST API using the tymon/jwt-auth package.

Laravel 8 JWT Authentication Tutorial by Example

In this tutorial, we’ll see step by step to implement a REST API with PHP and Laravel 8 with authentication via JWT tokens.

Step 1 — Creating a Laravel 8 Application

Let’s start our tutorial by creating a Laravel 8 application using Composer — the dependency management tool for PHP developers.

Head over to a new command-line interface and run the following command:

$ composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel laravel8jwtapp

Step 2 — Configuring a MySQL Database

After creating your Laravel 8 application using Composer, let’s configure a MySQL database in our second step.

Open the .env file located in the root of your Laravel 8′ application. Next, add the following database configuration information:

DB_CONNECTION=mysqlDB_HOST=127.0.0.1DB_PORT=3306DB_DATABASE= <database-name>DB_USERNAME= <database-username>DB_PASSWORD= <database-password>

Step 3 — Installing jwt-laravel

Now that we have a Laravel 8 application with a MySQL database configured, let’s start implementing JWT authentication by installing the jwt-auth package.

Head back to your terminal and run the following command from the root of your project’s folder:

$ composer require tymon/jwt-auth

Step 4 — Setting up JWT Authentication in Laravel 8

At this step, we have a Laravel 8 application with MySQL configured. We also installed the jwt-auth library in the previous step. Now, let’s set up JWT authentication in our application.

Head to the config/app.php file and add JWT providers and aliases as follows:

'providers' => [….'TymonJWTAuthProvidersJWTAuthServiceProvider',],'aliases' => [….'JWTAuth' => 'TymonJWTAuthFacadesJWTAuth','JWTFactory' => 'TymonJWTAuthFacadesJWTFactory',],

Next, head back to your terminal and run the following command:

$ php artisan vendor:publish --provider="TymonJWTAuthProvidersJWTAuthServiceProvider"

Step 5 — Generating a JWT Secret Key

After configuring JWT authentication in our Laravel 8 app. We’ll need to generate a JWT secret key in this step.

Head over to your terminal and run the following command to generate the JWT secret key:

$ php artisan jwt:generate

Next, open the vendor/tymon/src/Commands/JWTGenerateCommand.php and update it as follows:

public function handle() {$this->fire();}

Step 6 — Implementing JWT Authentication in Laravel 8 User Model

After configuring JWT in Laravel 8. In this step, we’ll implement it in the User model.

Open the App/User.php file, and update it as follows:

<?phpnamespaceApp;useIlluminateNotificationsNotifiable;useIlluminateFoundationAuthUserasAuthenticatable;classUserextendsAuthenticatable{useNotifiable;protected$fillable=['name','email','password',];protected$hidden=['password','remember_token',];}

Step 7 — Implementing the REST API Controller for JWT Authentication

Let’s now implement a Laravel 8 controller for handling JWT authentication in our REST API application.

Head back to your terminal and run the following command to generate a controller:

$ php artisan make:controller JwtAuthController

Next, open the app/http/controllers/JwtAuthController.php file, and add the following methods:

<?phpnamespaceAppHttpControllers;useJWTAuth;useValidator;useAppUser;useIlluminateHttpRequest;useAppHttpRequestsRegisterAuthRequest;useTymonJWTAuthExceptionsJWTException;useSymfonyComponentHttpFoundationResponse;classJwtAuthControllerextendsController{public$token=true;publicfunctionregister(Request$request){$validator=Validator::make($request->all(),['name'=>'required','email'=>'required|email','password'=>'required','c_password'=>'required|same:password',]);if($validator->fails()){returnresponse()->json(['error'=>$validator->errors()],401);}$user=newUser();$user->name=$request->name;$user->email=$request->email;$user->password=bcrypt($request->password);$user->save();if($this->token){return$this->login($request);}returnresponse()->json(['success'=>true,'data'=>$user],Response::HTTP_OK);}publicfunctionlogin(Request$request){$input=$request->only('email','password');$jwt_token=null;if(!$jwt_token=JWTAuth::attempt($input)){returnresponse()->json(['success'=>false,'message'=>'Invalid Email or Password',],Response::HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED);}returnresponse()->json(['success'=>true,'token'=>$jwt_token,]);}publicfunctionlogout(Request$request){$this->validate($request,['token'=>'required']);try{JWTAuth::invalidate($request->token);returnresponse()->json(['success'=>true,'message'=>'User logged out successfully']);}catch(JWTException$exception){returnresponse()->json(['success'=>false,'message'=>'Sorry, the user cannot be logged out'],Response::HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);}}publicfunctiongetUser(Request$request){$this->validate($request,['token'=>'required']);$user=JWTAuth::authenticate($request->token);returnresponse()->json(['user'=>$user]);}}

Step 7 — Add Laravel 8 REST API Routes

Now that we have implemented JWT authentication in our Laravel 8 User model. In this step, we’ll proceed to create our REST API routes.

Open the routes/api.php file, and update it as follows:

Route::post('login', 'JwtAuthController@login');Route::post('register', 'JwtAuthController@register');Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth.jwt'], function () {    Route::get('logout', 'JwtAuthController@logout');    Route::get('user-info', 'JwtAuthController@getUser');});

Step 9 — Serving your Laravel 8 REST API Authentication App

After implementing JWT authentication in our Laravel 8 REST API application, let’s run our local development server using the following command:

$ php artisan serve

Conclusion

Throughout this tutorial, we’ve seen step by step how to implement JWT authentication to secure and protect your REST API endpoints created with PHP and Laravel 8.

This post was originally posted on https://shabang.dev/laravel-8-rest-api-authentication-with-jwt-tutorial-by-example/