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Installation and Setup

In this section, we will guide you through the process of installing and setting up JWT Smith in your project. By the end of this section, you’ll have JWT Smith integrated into your Node.js or TypeScript application, ready to handle JWT-based authentication.

Installation​

To install JWT Smith, use your preferred package manager. Ensure that you have Node.js v18 or higher installed.

Using npm​

npm install jwt-smith

Using yarn​

yarn add jwt-smith

Using pnpm​

pnpm add jwt-smith

Basic Configuration​

After installing JWT Smith, you can start configuring it for your application. Begin by importing the required modules and setting up your JWT environment.

Setting Up​

Create a configuration object with JwtManager to centralize your JWT settings:

import { JwtManager } from 'jwt-smith';

JwtManager({
  signOptions: {
    algorithm: 'HS256',
  },
  publicKey: process.env.ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET,
  refreshTokenKey: process.env.REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET,
  middlewareConfigs: {
    tokenStorage: new CustomTokenStorage(),
    tokenGenerationHandler: customTokenGeneration,
    appendToRequest: ['user', 'role'],
    cookieSettings: {
      accessTokenCookieName: 'app-auth-token',
      refreshTokenCookieName: 'app-auth-refresh-token',
      refreshCookieOptions: {
        httpOnly: true,
        sameSite: false,
      },
    },
  },
});

We will discuss the JwtManager in depth in the next section.

Setting Environment Variables​

For security, store your secrets in environment variables. Create a .env file in the root of your project:

ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=your-access-token-secret
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET=your-refresh-token-secret

Integrating with Your Application​

Now, integrate JWT Smith into your application using its middlewares and utilities.

Example Setup with Express​

Here’s how to secure your routes using JWT Smith:

import express from 'express';
import { 
  validateJwtHeaderMiddleware, 
  validateJwtCookieMiddleware, 
  roleBasedAuthenticationMiddleware,
  JwtManager
} from 'jwt-smith';

const app = express();

JwtManager({
  ...
})

// Use the middleware to validate JWTs in the Authorization header
app.use('/api/protected', validateJwtHeaderMiddleware);

// Or validate JWTs stored in cookies
app.use('/api/secure', validateJwtCookieMiddleware);

// And validate with Role based authentication
app.use('/api/posts', validateJwtCookieMiddleware, roleBasedAuthenticationMiddleware('posts:read'));

app.get('/api/protected', (req, res) => {
  res.send('This route is protected with JWT!');
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server running on http://localhost:3000');
});

Next Steps​

At this point, you have successfully installed and integrated JWT Smith into your application. Next, we’ll dive into the core methods provided by JWT Smith, starting with core configurations management.