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shani singh
shani singh

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Laravel API Authentication Using LARAVEL SANCTUM

Make REST API AUTHENTICATION in LARAVEL 9 USING LARAVEL SANCTUM

Laravel Sanctum provides a featherweight authentication system for SPAs (single page applications), mobile applications, and simple, token based APIs.

Installation Steps

If you are not using LARAVEL 9 you need to install LARAVEL Sanctum Otherwise you can skip the installation step.

Step 1

Install via composer

composer require laravel/sanctum
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Step 2

Publish the Sanctum Service Provider

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sanctum\SanctumServiceProvider"
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Step 3

Migrate The Database

php artisan migrate
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USING SANCTUM IN LARAVEL

User HasApiTokens Trait in App\Models\User

In Order to use Sanctum we need to use HasApiTokens Trait Class in User Model.
User Model should look like.

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable;

    /**
     * The attributes that are mass assignable.
     *
     * @var array<int, string>
     */
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'password',
    ];

    /**
     * The attributes that should be hidden for serialization.
     *
     * @var array<int, string>
     */
    protected $hidden = [
        'password',
        'remember_token',
    ];

    /**
     * The attributes that should be cast.
     *
     * @var array<string, string>
     */
    protected $casts = [
        'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
    ];
}
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API Authentication Routes

Create AuthController to handle all authentication realted to API

php artisan make:controller Api\\AuthController
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In routes\api.php file update the API

Route::post('/auth/register', [AuthController::class, 'createUser']);
Route::post('/auth/login', [AuthController::class, 'loginUser']);
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Now update AuthContoller with

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\Api;

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

class AuthController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Create User
     * @param Request $request
     * @return User 
     */
    public function createUser(Request $request)
    {
        try {
            //Validated
            $validateUser = Validator::make($request->all(), 
            [
                'name' => 'required',
                'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email',
                'password' => 'required'
            ]);

            if($validateUser->fails()){
                return response()->json([
                    'status' => false,
                    'message' => 'validation error',
                    'errors' => $validateUser->errors()
                ], 401);
            }

            $user = User::create([
                'name' => $request->name,
                'email' => $request->email,
                'password' => Hash::make($request->password)
            ]);

            return response()->json([
                'status' => true,
                'message' => 'User Created Successfully',
                'token' => $user->createToken("API TOKEN")->plainTextToken
            ], 200);

        } catch (\Throwable $th) {
            return response()->json([
                'status' => false,
                'message' => $th->getMessage()
            ], 500);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Login The User
     * @param Request $request
     * @return User
     */
    public function loginUser(Request $request)
    {
        try {
            $validateUser = Validator::make($request->all(), 
            [
                'email' => 'required|email',
                'password' => 'required'
            ]);

            if($validateUser->fails()){
                return response()->json([
                    'status' => false,
                    'message' => 'validation error',
                    'errors' => $validateUser->errors()
                ], 401);
            }

            if(!Auth::attempt($request->only(['email', 'password']))){
                return response()->json([
                    'status' => false,
                    'message' => 'Email & Password does not match with our record.',
                ], 401);
            }

            $user = User::where('email', $request->email)->first();

            return response()->json([
                'status' => true,
                'message' => 'User Logged In Successfully',
                'token' => $user->createToken("API TOKEN")->plainTextToken
            ], 200);

        } catch (\Throwable $th) {
            return response()->json([
                'status' => false,
                'message' => $th->getMessage()
            ], 500);
        }
    }
}
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Protect API With Authentication we need to use auth:sanctum middleware.

Route::apiResource('posts', PostController::class)->middleware('auth:sanctum');
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Here are the results.

Register User

Login API

GET API

The complete Tutorial is below in the video.

If you face any issue while making REST API, please comment your query.

Thank You for Reading

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Latest comments (13)

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thanhdhph18884 profile image
thành vietnam

I'm from Vietnam you get 10 points no buts

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ndotie profile image
ndotie

Good sanctuam tutorials

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ahmad9250 profile image
Ahmad9250

Hi can you make an login page on Laravel blade template and login through API post method with same email and password that was saved in db

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shanisingh03 profile image
shani singh

Hi @ahmad9250
You can connect me at my email shanisingh280795@gmail.com , We can discuss there.
Thanks

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ramaeisawi profile image
Rama-Eisawi

Hello, thank you so much
I code exactly like you, but this error is shown when I try the login query in postman:"message": "SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1048 Column 'tokenable_id' cannot be null"
please help me :(

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shoxrux13 profile image
Shoxrux Ergashev

Hello
tokenable_id can be user_id or post_id. It depends to your token model like App\Models\User.
I think it will help you :)

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qaziumar profile image
Umar Adil

Hi Shani, thanks for this tutorial. I want to list the all users I have in DB and don't want this API to be public. How do I secure this api using sanctum. To access this DB no user logs in becuase this api is used to select the users only.

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shanisingh03 profile image
shani singh

You can write a new middleware or use Auth Gaurd for Securing the API.

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softactor profile image
Tanveer Qureshee

Dear Shani singhn
First of all thank you for the great articles.

I have a question and if you can help me it will be great.
I am useing csrf-cookie base authentication not token based
But i am unable to test api from post man, or swagger due to header cookies check

have you any advice or solution for me?
Please reply me.

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shanisingh03 profile image
shani singh

Hi Tanveer,
laravel.com/docs/9.x/sanctum#csrf-...

This can help you setting up csrf-cookie.
Thanks

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muhammadfaisal profile image
Muhammad Faisal

Hey, good article short and concise!

But may I ask about other uses of this personal access token?
If I may, I will ask point by point if you are willing to enlighten me..

  1. We always generate token with code createToken("API TOKEN")->plainTextToken and input it in database table personal_access_tokens when we login/register right?
  • 1.1. So, is the use of auth:sanctum only to provide a limit on Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->group(function () { }); ??
  • 1.2. If not, what are the other uses of these personal_access_tokens?
  1. After we successfully generate the token and send it as an authorization token in the header like in your Postman image, it will work and send the response as we want right?
  • 2.1. If we send the wrong token code, this will give a response in the form of html code in Postman, which cannot be read in the API response. So, the question is how to check and provide a more understandable error response?
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shanisingh03 profile image
shani singh

Hi
So use of Personal Access token is to identify users identity and based on that it gives you response, and to get JSON response you can define request type JSON then Laravel API will always give you JSON Response.
in Addition you can write exception handler condition and format the response as well.
hope this will clear your thoughts.

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muhammadfaisal profile image
Muhammad Faisal • Edited

Whoa, thanks for the reply!
I've been trying for days to understand everything by reading the documentation from Laravel, also asking on Stackoverflow, but in the end I just understand that Personal Access Tokens are just User ID identifiers, and NOT work like a session security, right?

By the way, thanks for the explanation on the first point.

The second, thanks for pointing out about the json type acceptance and now i can json type message like this
Image description