Laravel 5.6 API Authentication Passport

In this article, we will discuss the Laravel 5.6 API Authentication Passport. Laravel provides an easy way to perform authentication and API’s use tokens to authenticate the user. Because API’s not maintains any session between request.

In Laravel, API authentication is too easy using Laravel Passport. It provides full OAuth2 server implementation for your Laravel application. Passport is built on top of the League OAuth2 server.

I’m assuming you are familiar with the Laravel framework if not then you can start with given tutorials.

• Laravel Setup
• Laravel Default Authentication Setup
• Custom User Email Verification / Activation
• Understanding Laravel Middleware
• All You Need to Know Laravel Routing
• Setup Virtual Host with Xampp Server

Installation Laravel Passport

Use given composer command to install Laravel Passport.

composer require laravel/passport

After, successful execution of the above command. Update your config/app.php.

'providers' =>[
    ...
    Laravel\Passport\PassportServiceProvider::class,
    ...
],

The Passport package having its own database migration directory with the framework, so we need to migrate our database after registering the provider.

php artisan migrate

After, executing the above command. If you receive an error “Syntax error or access violation: 1071 Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes (SQL: alter table `users` add unique `users_email_unique`(`email`))” Then you can fix this using given solution.

Update the AppServiceProvider.php located at app/providers.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

public function boot()
{
    Schema::defaultStringLength(191);
}

After, updating the AppServiceProvider.php. The migrate command executed without any issue. And create some of the tables related to the OAuth2 Server and some of Laravel default authentication.

Installing Encryption Keys and Update User Model

Next, we need to create the encryption keys. Those keys are required to generate the secure access token. The given command will create “personal access” and “password grant” clients which will be used to generate access tokens:

php artisan passport:install

After, creating the encryption keys. It’s time to update our User Model. Add Laravel\Passport\HasApiTokens trait to App\User Model. This will provide some of the helper functions to your model. After an update, that allows us to inspect the authenticated user tokens.

<?php

use Laravel\Passport\HasApiTokens;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasApiTokens, Notifiable;
}

Register Passport Route

Next, we will update AuthServiceProvider.php located in app/Providers directory.

use Laravel\Passport\Passport;

class AuthServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    ...
    public function boot()
    {
        ...
        Passport::routes();
    }
}

Update Auth Configuration

Now time update our config/auth.php located in the config directory. Open the file and update the driver option of the API authentication guard to Passport.

'guards' => [
    'web' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'users',
    ],

    'api' => [
        'driver' => 'passport',
        'provider' => 'users',
    ],
],

Setup Token Lifetimes

By default, Passport tokens having a long life and expire after one year. But if you want to change this lifetime, then you can easily update this using tokenExpireIn and refreshTokenExpireIn methods. You need to update your AuthServiceProvider, boot method:

public function boot()
{
    $this->registerPolicies();

    Passport::routes();

    Passport::tokensExpireIn(now()->addDays(15));

    Passport::refreshTokensExpireIn(now()->addDays(30));
}

Creating API

After, all the basic setup of Laravel Password. Now time to create API’s for Login, Register and User Details.

API Route

Register route for Login, Register, and User Details.

<?php

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

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

Route::middleware('auth:api')->group(function(){
  Route::post('details', 'API\AuthController@getDetails');
});

Create Auth Controller

Use given command to create Auth Controller, Here we create functions to perform Login, Register, and Fetch User Details.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\API;

use Illuminate\Http\Request; 
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller; 
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth; 
use App\User; 
use Validator;

class AuthController extends Controller 
{
  /** 
   * Login API 
   * 
   * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response 
   */ 
  public function login(Request $request){ 
    if(Auth::attempt(['email' => $request->email, 'password' => $request->password])){ 
      $user = Auth::user(); 
      $success['token'] =  $user->createToken('LaraPassport')->accessToken; 
      return response()->json([
        'status' => 'success',
        'data' => $success
      ]); 
    } else { 
      return response()->json([
        'status' => 'error',
        'data' => 'Unauthorized Access'
      ]); 
    } 
  }
    
  /** 
   * Register API 
   * 
   * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response 
   */ 
  public function register(Request $request) 
  { 
    $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [ 
      'name' => 'required', 
      'email' => 'required|email', 
      'password' => 'required', 
      'c_password' => 'required|same:password', 
    ]);
    if ($validator->fails()) { 
      return response()->json(['error'=>$validator->errors()]);
    }
    $postArray = $request->all(); 
    $postArray['password'] = bcrypt($postArray['password']); 
    $user = User::create($postArray); 
    $success['token'] =  $user->createToken('LaraPassport')->accessToken; 
    $success['name'] =  $user->name;
    return response()->json([
      'status' => 'success',
      'data' => $success,
    ]); 
  }
    
  /** 
   * details api 
   * 
   * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response 
   */ 
  public function getDetails() 
  { 
    $user = Auth::user(); 
    return response()->json(['success' => $user]); 
  } 
}

Finally, now time to test our API’s. I’m going use Postman to test the API’s. A postman is a great tool for API testing. You can use another tool as per your compatibility and experience. Also, share the tools with us using the comment section. You can download a postman here.

Test Login API

Login API needs user email and password. After successful authentication API returns a token which is used in further API calls. Or if authentication failed, then error thrown by the API.

Register API

Register API needs a name, email, password, and c_password. c_password is used to verify the password. And also some of the default Laravel validations implemented such as required, email and confirmation password. After successful registration API returns a token and registered a username.

Get Details API

Details API needs two headers Authorization and Accept. After the successful token authentication, API returns the user details.

Conclusion

In this article, we will discuss Laravel API Authentication Passport Implementation. Hope you like this article. You can download the working example from the GitHub. Please feel free to add the comments if any query or submit your feedback 🙂

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