JWT token generation and verification in Node.js - Mini Project: Build & Apply

JWT Token Generation and Verification

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple authentication system for a web app. You need to create and verify JWT tokens to securely identify users.

🎯 Goal: Build a Node.js script that generates a JWT token for a user and then verifies it to confirm the user's identity.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a user object with exact properties

Define a secret key string for signing tokens

Generate a JWT token using the user object and secret key

Verify the JWT token using the secret key

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

JWT tokens are widely used in web apps to securely identify users without storing session data on the server.

💼 Career

Understanding JWT token generation and verification is essential for backend developers working on authentication and authorization.

1

Create the user data object

Create a constant called user with these exact properties: id set to 123, username set to 'alice', and role set to 'admin'.

Node.js

// Create the user object with id, username, and role
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const user = { id: 123, username: 'alice', role: 'admin' }; to create the user object.

2

Define the secret key

Create a constant called secretKey and set it to the string 'mysecretkey'.

Node.js

const user = { id: 123, username: 'alice', role: 'admin' };
// Define the secret key string
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const secretKey = 'mysecretkey'; to define the secret key.

3

Generate the JWT token

Import the jsonwebtoken package and create a constant called token by signing the user object with secretKey using jwt.sign().

Node.js

const user = { id: 123, username: 'alice', role: 'admin' };
const secretKey = 'mysecretkey';
// Import jsonwebtoken and generate token
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken'); to import and const token = jwt.sign(user, secretKey); to create the token.

4

Verify the JWT token

Create a constant called verifiedUser by verifying the token with secretKey using jwt.verify().

Node.js

const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
const user = { id: 123, username: 'alice', role: 'admin' };
const secretKey = 'mysecretkey';
const token = jwt.sign(user, secretKey);
// Verify the token
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const verifiedUser = jwt.verify(token, secretKey); to verify the token.