react-native-axios-jwt

Store, clear, transmit and automatically refresh JWT authentication tokens in a React Native environment.

Looking for a web alternative? Check out axios-jwt

What does it do?

Applies a request interceptor to your axios instance.

The interceptor automatically adds an access token header (default: Authorization) to all requests. It stores accessToken and refreshToken in AsyncStorage and reads them when needed.

It parses the expiration time of your access token and checks to see if it is expired before every request. If it has expired, a request to refresh and store a new access token is automatically performed before the request proceeds.

Installation

1. Install async-storage

Install package

With npm:

npm install @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

With Yarn:

yarn add @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

With Expo CLI:

expo install @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

Link Android & iOS packages

• React Native 0.60+

npx pod-install

• React Native <= 0.59

react-native link @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

Please follow the async-storage installation instructions if you encounter any problems while installing async-storage

2. Install this library

With npm:

npm install react-native-axios-jwt

With Yarn:

yarn add react-native-axios-jwt

How do I use it?

1. Create an axios instance
2. Define a token refresh function
3. Configure the interceptor
4. Store tokens on login with setAuthTokens()
5. Clear tokens on logout with clearAuthTokens()

Applying the interceptor

// api.ts

import { IAuthTokens, TokenRefreshRequest, applyAuthTokenInterceptor } from 'react-native-axios-jwt'
import axios from 'axios'

const BASE_URL = 'https://api.example.com'

// 1. Create an axios instance that you wish to apply the interceptor to
export const axiosInstance = axios.create({ baseURL: BASE_URL })

// 2. Define token refresh function.
const requestRefresh: TokenRefreshRequest = async (refreshToken: string): Promise<string> => {

  // Important! Do NOT use the axios instance that you supplied to applyAuthTokenInterceptor
  // because this will result in an infinite loop when trying to refresh the token.
  // Use the global axios client or a different instance
  const response = await axios.post(`${BASE_URL}/auth/refresh_token`, { token: refreshToken })

  return response.data.access_token
}

// 3. Add interceptor to your axios instance
applyAuthTokenInterceptor(axiosInstance, { requestRefresh })

Login/logout

// login.ts

import { isLoggedIn, setAuthTokens, clearAuthTokens, getAccessToken, getRefreshToken } from 'react-native-axios-jwt'
import { axiosInstance } from './api'

// 4. Log in by POST-ing the email and password and get tokens in return
// and call setAuthTokens with the result.
const login = async (params: ILoginRequest) => {
  const response = await axiosInstance.post('/auth/login', params)

  // save tokens to storage
  await setAuthTokens({
    accessToken: response.data.access_token,
    refreshToken: response.data.refresh_token
  })
}

// 5. Log out by clearing the auth tokens from AsyncStorage
const logout = () => clearAuthTokens()

// Check if refresh token exists
if (isLoggedIn()) {
  // assume we are logged in because we have a refresh token
}

// Get access to tokens
const accessToken = getAccessToken().then(accessToken => console.log(accessToken))
const refreshToken = getRefreshToken().then(refreshToken => console.log(refreshToken))

Configuration

applyAuthTokenInterceptor(axiosInstance, {
  requestRefresh,  // async function that takes a refreshToken and returns a promise the resolves in a fresh accessToken
  header = "Authorization",  // header name
  headerPrefix = "Bearer ",  // header value prefix
})

Caveats

• Your backend should allow a few seconds of leeway between when the token expires and when it actually becomes unusable.

Non-TypeScript implementation

//api.js

import { applyAuthTokenInterceptor } from 'react-native-axios-jwt';
import axios from 'axios';

const BASE_URL = 'https://api.example.com'

// 1. Create an axios instance that you wish to apply the interceptor to
export const axiosInstance = axios.create({ baseURL: BASE_URL })

// 2. Define token refresh function.
const requestRefresh = async (refresh) => {
    // Notice that this is the global axios instance, not the axiosInstance!
    const response = await axios.post(`${BASE_URL}/auth/refresh_token`, { refresh })

    return response.data.access_token
};

// 3. Apply interceptor
// Notice that this uses the axiosInstance instance.
applyAuthTokenInterceptor(axiosInstance, { requestRefresh }); 

Login/logout

//login.js

import {
  isLoggedIn,
  setAuthTokens,
  clearAuthTokens,
  getAccessToken,
  getRefreshToken,
} from 'react-native-axios-jwt';
import { axiosInstance } from '../api';

// 4. Log in by POST-ing the email and password and get tokens in return
// and call setAuthTokens with the result.
const login = async (params) => {
  const response = await axiosInstance.post('/auth/login', params)

  // save tokens to storage
    await setAuthTokens({
    accessToken: response.data.access_token,
    refreshToken: response.data.refresh_token
  })
}

// 5. Log out by clearing the auth tokens from AsyncStorage
const logout = () => clearAuthTokens()

// Check if refresh token exists
if (isLoggedIn()) {
  // assume we are logged in because we have a refresh token
}

// Get access to tokens
const accessToken = getAccessToken().then(accessToken => console.log(accessToken))
const refreshToken = getRefreshToken().then(refreshToken => console.log(refreshToken))


// Now just make all requests using your axiosInstance instance
axiosInstance.get('/api/endpoint/that/requires/login').then(response => { })