Setting Up and Testing Express.js JWT Authentication API

Follow these steps to set up and test a simple Express.js JWT authentication API.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Open your terminal and run the following command to install the required dependencies using Yarn:

yarn install

Step 2: Setup ENV

Copy the .env.example file to .env. You can modify the value if needed

Step 3: Start the Development Server

Start the development server by running the following command:

yarn dev

Step 4: Authenticate with the API

Hit the /auth/sign-in endpoint using your preferred tool (e.g., Postman or curl) with an available user from the db.js file. This API call will provide you with a JWT token. Replace <email> and <password> with the actual email and password of the user from the db.js file:

POST http://localhost:3000/auth/sign-in
Body:

{
  "email": "<email>",
  "password": "<password>"
}

This will return a access token and refresh token in the response.

Step 5: Test the Token

Now, you can test if the access token is working by making an authenticated request to the /me endpoint. Set the JWT token as the Authorization header in the request. Replace <your_token> with the JWT token obtained in Step 3:

GET http://localhost:3000/me
Headers:

Authorization: Bearer <your_token>

If the token is valid, you should receive a response with the user's information. If it's invalid, you will get an authentication error.