Laravel 5.4 JWT-Powered Mobile App API

This API was built for the Quotes app at the repo below.

React Native/Redux Quotes App

Tutorial

• Step 1: Create new project and install jwt-auth
• Step 2: Add JWT Provider and Facades
• Step 3: Set Up Routes
• Step 4: Set Up Database
• Step 5: Register and Verify Email Address
• Step 6: Log User In and Out
• Step 7: Recover Password
• Step 8: Testing

Step 1: Create new project and install jwt-auth

Create Laravel project

laravel new JWTAuthentication

Open composer.json and update the require object to include jwt-auth

"require": {
    "php": ">=5.6.4",
    "laravel/framework": "5.4.*",
    "laravel/tinker": "~1.0",
    "tymon/jwt-auth": "0.5.*"
}

Then, run

composer update 

Step 2: Add JWT Provider and Facades

We’ll now need to update the providers array in config/app.php with the jwt-auth provider. Open up config/app.php, find the providers array located on line 138 and add this to it:

Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\JWTAuthServiceProvider::class, 

Add in the jwt-auth facades which we can do in config/app.php. Find the aliases array and add these facades to it:

'JWTAuth'   => Tymon\JWTAuth\Facades\JWTAuth::class, 
'JWTFactory' => Tymon\JWTAuth\Facades\JWTFactory::class 
 

We also need to publish the assets for this package. From the command line:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\JWTAuthServiceProvider" 
 

After you run this command you will see a new file in the config folder called jwt.php. This file contains settings for jwt-auth, one of which we need to change right away. We need to generate a secret key which we can do from the command line:

php artisan jwt:generate 
 

You’ll see that after running this command we get a new value next to’secret’ where “changeme” was before.

Register the jwt.auth and jwt.refresh middleware in app/http/Kernel.php

protected $routeMiddleware = [
...
    'jwt.auth' => 'Tymon\JWTAuth\Middleware\GetUserFromToken',
    'jwt.refresh' => 'Tymon\JWTAuth\Middleware\RefreshToken',
];

Step 3: Set Up Routes

Open up routes/api.php.

Route::post('register', 'AuthController@register');
Route::post('login', 'AuthController@login');
Route::post('recover', 'AuthController@recover');

Route::group(['middleware' => ['jwt.auth']], function() {
    Route::get('logout', 'AuthController@logout');
});

Step 4: Set Up Database

Since we are going to allow users to create their accounts within the application, we will need a table to store all of our users. Thankfully, Laravel already ships with a migration to create a basic users table, so we do not need to manually generate one. The default migration for the users table is located in the database/migrations directory.

We need to add an extra column to the users table.

Available on my blog.

Step 5: Register

Available on my blog.

Step 6: Log User In and Out

Available on my blog.

Step 7: Recover Password

Available on my blog.

Step 8: Testing

Available on my blog.