API Development in Laravel 8 using JWT token

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

Let’s install Laravel 8 via composer. (https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/installation#installation-via-composer)

composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-jwt-api

Now go to the folder and start the server

php artisan serve

Run the following URL to the browser: http://127.0.0.1:8000/

So We will create two tables
1.)users — (id , name , email , phone , phone_no , password)
2.)courses — (id , user_id , title , description , total_videos)

User can enroll to multiple courses

We create following APIs

1.) Login (after login we create JWT token)
2.) Register
3.) User profile
4.) User course enrollment
5.) Total courses
6.) Delete user courses

So what is JWT ? (https://jwt.io/)

JSON Web Tokens are an open, method for representing claims securely between two parties.

Let’s take example
eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiaWF0IjoxNTE2MjM5MDIyfQ.SflKxwRJSMeKKF2QT4fwpMeJf36POk6yJV_adQssw5c

This token is concated by 3 diffrent string.
1.) Header with alogorithm
2.) Payload data
3.) Signature

To connect database with application, Open .env file from application root. Search for DB_ and update your details.Now install JWT.

composer require tymon/jwt-auth

and migrate file.

php artisan migrate

Now go to app.php and update providers array.

Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\LaravelServiceProvider::class,

Also update aliases.

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

Now

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\LaravelServiceProvider"
php artisan jwt:secret

This will generate JWT token. Now save to .env file as JWT_SECRET.
Now to create JWT token at login time let’s do some change to User.php.

use Tymon\JWTAuth\Contracts\JWTSubject;
class User extends Authenticatable implements JWTSubject
public function getJWTIdentifier()
    {
        return $this->getKey();
    }
public function getJWTCustomClaims()
    {
        return [];
    }

Now configure Auth guard. Go to auth.php.

'defaults' => [
  'guard' => 'api', // update here
  'passwords' => 'users',
],
'api' => [ // update here
    'driver' => 'jwt',
    'provider' => 'users',
    'hash' => false,
  ],

Now create migration for users and students table. Now add phone_no to users table migration file and then create courses table migration. Add following line to users table migration file.

$table->string("phone_no", 20);
php artisan make:migration CreateCoursesTable

Add following line to course migration file.

<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class CreateCoursesTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('courses', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            //$table->integer("user_id")->unsigned();
            $table->unsignedInteger("user_id");
            $table->string("title", 80);
            $table->text("description")->nullable();
            $table->integer("total_videos");
        });
    }
/**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('courses');
    }
}
php artisan migrate:refresh
php artisan make:model Course

Now put following code to Course.php

<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Course extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;
protected $table = "courses";
public $timestamps = false;
protected $fillable = ["user_id", "title", "description", "total_videos"];
}

Now make UserController.

php artisan make:controller Api/UserController --model=User
php artisan make:controller Api/CourseController --model=Course

Now define routes in API.php

use App\Http\Controllers\Api\UserController;
use App\Http\Controllers\Api\CourseController;
Route::post("register", [UserController::class, "register"]);
Route::post("login", [UserController::class, "login"]);
Route::group(["middleware" => ["auth:api"]], function(){
Route::get("profile", [UserController::class, "profile"]);
    Route::get("logout", [UserController::class, "logout"]);
// course api routes
    Route::post("course-enrol", [CourseController::class, "courseEnrollment"]);
    Route::get("total-courses", [CourseController::class, "totalCourses"]);
    Route::get("delete-course/{id}", [CourseController::class, "deleteCourse"]);
});
Route::middleware('auth:api')->get('/user', function (Request $request) {
    return $request->user();
});

Now let’s add method defination in UserController.php

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers\Api;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class UserController extends Controller
{
    // USER REGISTER API - POST
    public function register(Request $request)
    {
        // validation
        $request->validate([
            "name" => "required",
            "email" => "required|email|unique:users",
            "phone_no" => "required",
            "password" => "required|confirmed"
        ]);
// create user data + save
        $user = new User();
$user->name = $request->name;
        $user->email = $request->email;
        $user->phone_no = $request->phone_no;
        $user->password = bcrypt($request->password);
$user->save();
// send response
        return response()->json([
            "status" => 1,
            "message" => "User registered successfully"
        ], 200);
    }
// USER LOGIN API - POST
    public function login(Request $request)
    {
        // validation
        $request->validate([
            "email" => "required|email",
            "password" => "required"
        ]);
// verify user + token
        if (!$token = auth()->attempt(["email" => $request->email, "password" => $request->password])) {
return response()->json([
                "status" => 0,
                "message" => "Invalid credentials"
            ]);
        }
// send response
        return response()->json([
            "status" => 1,
            "message" => "Logged in successfully",
            "access_token" => $token
        ]);
    }
// USER PROFILE API - GET
    public function profile()
    {
        $user_data = auth()->user();
return response()->json([
            "status" => 1,
            "message" => "User profile data",
            "data" => $user_data
        ]);
    }
// USER LOGOUT API - GET
    public function logout()
    {
        auth()->logout();
return response()->json([
            "status" => 1,
            "message" => "User logged out"
        ]);
    }
}

Register API — POST — http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/register

{
"name" : "First student",
"email" : "test@test.com",
"phone_no" : "1234567891",
"password":"123456",
"password_confirmation" : "123456"
}

Login API — POST — http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/login

{
"email" : "test@test.com",
"password":"123456",
}

User Profile API — GET — http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/profile

Pass JWT token to the header in Authorization: bearer token

User Logout API — GET — http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/logout

Pass JWT token to the header in Authorization: bearer token

Now copy the following code to CourseController.php

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers\Api;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Models\Course;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class CourseController extends Controller
{
    // COURSE ENROLLMENT API - POST
    public function courseEnrollment(Request $request)
    {
// validation
        $request->validate([
            "title" => "required",
            "description" => "required",
            "total_videos" => "required"
        ]);
// create course object
        $course = new Course();
$course->user_id = auth()->user()->id;
        $course->title = $request->title;
        $course->description = $request->description;
        $course->total_videos = $request->total_videos;
$course->save();
// send response
        return response()->json([
            "status" => 1,
            "message" => "Course enrolled successfully"
        ]);
    }
// TOTAL COURSE ENROLLMENT API - GET
    public function totalCourses()
    {
        $id = auth()->user()->id;
$courses = User::find($id)->courses;
return response()->json([
            "status" => 1,
            "message" => "Total Courses enrolled",
            "data" => $courses
        ]);
    }
// DELETE COURSE API - GET
    public function deleteCourse($id)
    {
        // user id
        // course id
        // courses table
        $user_id = auth()->user()->id;
if (Course::where([
            "id" => $id,
            "user_id" => $user_id
        ])->exists()) {
$course = Course::find($id);
$course->delete();
return response()->json([
                "status" => 1,
                "message" => "Course deleted successfully"
            ]);
        } else {
return response()->json([
                "status" => 0,
                "message" => "Course not found"
            ]);
        }
    }
}

Course Enroll API — POST — http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/course-enrol
Pass JWT token to the header.

{
"title": "First Course",
"description": "Learn laravel api",
"total_videos": 1
}

Total User Course — GET— http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/total-courses.
For that go to User.php to create has many relations between user and courses.
Pass JWT token to the header.

use App\Models\Course;
public function courses()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Course::class);
    }

Delete Course — GET — http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/delete-course/user_id
Pass JWT token to the header.