Enabling JWT Authentication for Plugin Routes in HapiJS APIs

If you are using securing your HapiJS APIs using JWT, below is the code snippet most tutorials suggest:

server.register([
{ register: require('hapi-auth-jwt') },
{ register: require('./routes/test-route') }
], 
(err) => {
            if (err) {
              console.error('Failed to load a plugin:', err);
            } else {
//For JWT 
server.auth.strategy('token', 'jwt', {
key: new Buffer(process.env.AUTH_CLIENT_SECRET,'base64'),
verifyOptions: {
algorithms:['HS256'],
audience: process.env.AUTH_CLIENT_ID
}
});

//For testing
server.route({
method: 'GET',
path: '/',
config: { auth: 'token' },
handler: function (request, reply) {
reply('API server running happi and secure!');
}
});
            }
        }
);

//Server start
server.start((err) => {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(`Server running at: ${server.info.uri}`);
});

In the GET / route, the config auth: ‘token’ specifies that the token JWT auth strategy should be applied.  However, a problem might arise when you want to include a route from a plugin. Let's say that a GET /test route needs to be added from ./routes/test-route.js. In the test-route.js, when I added config: {auth: ‘token’} under GET /test, Hapi complains Error: Unknown authentication strategy token in /test. This is because the auth strategy token is defined externally in server.js (if that’s your entry point).

The solution is to specify server.auth.default(‘token’); in your entry point or server.js. With this configuration, we don’t need to specify config: {auth: ‘token’} under each route. If we want to exclude a route from authenticating, we can specify config: {auth: false} under that route.

The solution looks like this:

server.register([
{ register: require('hapi-auth-jwt') },
{ register: require('./routes/test-route') }
], 
(err) => {
            if (err) {
              console.error('Failed to load a plugin:', err);
            } else {
//For JWT 
server.auth.strategy('token', 'jwt', {
key: new Buffer(process.env.AUTH_CLIENT_SECRET,'base64'),
verifyOptions: {
algorithms:['HS256'],
audience: process.env.AUTH_CLIENT_ID
}
});

//This enables auth for routes under plugins too.
server.auth.default('token');

//For testing - auth included by default
server.route({
method: 'GET',
path: '/',
handler: function (request, reply) {
reply('API server running hapi and secure!');
}
});

//For testing - auth excluded through config
server.route({
method: 'GET',
path: '/',
config: { auth: false },
handler: function (request, reply) {
reply('API server running hapi!');
}
});
            }
        }
);

//Server start
server.start((err) => {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(`Server running at: ${server.info.uri}`);
});