Token management in Laravel - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Token Management in Laravel

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Laravel API that requires users to have tokens for authentication. You will create a token management system to store and check tokens.

🎯 Goal: Build a Laravel controller that manages user tokens by storing tokens in an array, setting a token expiration time, checking if a token is valid, and returning a response accordingly.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an array to store tokens with user IDs

Add a configuration variable for token expiration time

Write a function to check if a token is valid based on expiration

Return a JSON response indicating token validity

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Token management is essential for API authentication to control access securely.

💼 Career

Understanding token management helps backend developers build secure APIs and manage user sessions.

1

Create the token storage array

Create a protected array called $tokens inside a Laravel controller class called TokenController. The array should have these exact entries: 1 => 'abc123', 2 => 'def456', 3 => 'ghi789'.

Laravel

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class TokenController extends Controller
{
    // Create the protected $tokens array here
}

Need a hint?

Define a protected property $tokens as an associative array inside the TokenController class.

2

Add token expiration configuration

Add a protected integer variable called $tokenExpiration inside the TokenController class and set it to 3600 (seconds).

Laravel

 'abc123',
        2 => 'def456',
        3 => 'ghi789'
    ];

    // Add the protected $tokenExpiration variable here
}

Need a hint?

Define a protected integer property $tokenExpiration and assign it the value 3600.

3

Create a method to check token validity

Inside the TokenController class, create a public method called isTokenValid that accepts a string parameter $token. Use a foreach loop with variables $userId and $storedToken to iterate over $this->tokens. Return true if $token matches $storedToken, otherwise return false after the loop.

Laravel

 'abc123',
        2 => 'def456',
        3 => 'ghi789'
    ];

    protected int $tokenExpiration = 3600;

    // Create the isTokenValid method here
}

Need a hint?

Use a foreach loop to compare the input $token with each stored token. Return true if found, else false.

4

Add a method to respond with token validity

Add a public method called checkToken that accepts a Request $request. Retrieve the token from the request using $request->input('token'). Use $this->isTokenValid($token) to check validity. Return a JSON response with key 'valid' set to true or false accordingly.

Laravel

 'abc123',
        2 => 'def456',
        3 => 'ghi789'
    ];

    protected int $tokenExpiration = 3600;

    public function isTokenValid(string $token): bool
    {
        foreach ($this->tokens as $userId => $storedToken) {
            if ($token === $storedToken) {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    // Add the checkToken method here
}

Need a hint?

Get the token from the request, check validity using isTokenValid, then return a JSON response with the result.