What is Express JWT?

What is Express?

Express is a back-end web application framework designed for Node.JS to construct APIsApplication Programming Interfaces as well as web applications.

Express facilitates the instant creation of web applications based on Node.JS.

Functionality of Express

Some of the primary functionalities of Express are that it creates a routing table to help carry out multiple actions based on URL and HTTP methods. Moreover, it enables the user to entertain HTTPHyperText Transfer Protocol requests by configuring middlewares.

What is Express JWT?

JSON Web Tokens (JWT) were created to enable a procedure of communicating between two groups authentically to prevent security threats.

JWTs are widely used for the purpose of authentication. For instance, while signing in, a token will be generated by the server to be reserved for the client.

Methodology

Following this, the client uses this information each time it generates a request to the server, which then uses the token to provide access to confidential resources based on the user’s permission levels.

A specific amount of time is given to access the resources, and once the time limit is reached, a new token is created as the JWT expires.


Express JS is usually used in Node.JS to create a JWT token.

Pros of JWT

  • Prevents the need to manage a session.

  • Vastly mobile. Its numerous distributed backends require a single token.

  • Mobile friendly and cookies free.

  • Deconcentrated from the application’s module.

Cons of JWT

  • JWT Signature can be altered by the user, thus violating security.

  • JWT Signature requires extra space to be stored.

What does a JWT look like?

This is what a simple JWT token looks like:


eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiaWF0IjoxNTE2MjM5MDIyfQ.SflKxwRJSMeKKF2QT4fwpMeJf36POk6yJV_adQssw5c

How to create a JWT token

  1. Install it to your project through npmNode Project Manager.

npm install jsonwebtoken
  1. Import it into your project.

const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

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