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python requests jwt token

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests with JWT Token

When it comes to authentication, JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are becoming increasingly popular. JWTs are stateless and can be used to securely transmit information between two parties. Python Requests is a great library for making HTTP requests, and it works well with JWT tokens. In this post, we'll look at how to use Python Requests with JWT tokens.

What is a JWT Token?

A JSON Web Token, or JWT, is a standard for creating tokens that can be used to authenticate users. JWTs have three parts: a header, a payload, and a signature. The header contains information about the token, such as the algorithm used to sign it. The payload contains information about the user, such as their email address or username. The signature is created using a secret key, and it ensures that the token is not tampered with during transmission.

Creating a JWT Token

Before we can use Python Requests with a JWT token, we need to create a token. There are many libraries available for creating JWT tokens in Python, but we'll use the PyJWT library in this example. Here's an example of how to create a JWT token:


import jwt
import datetime

payload = {
    'user_id': 1234,
    'exp': datetime.datetime.utcnow() + datetime.timedelta(days=1)
}
secret_key = 'mysecretkey'

token = jwt.encode(payload, secret_key, algorithm='HS256')
print(token)

In this example, we're creating a token with a payload that includes a user ID and an expiry time. We're using the 'HS256' algorithm to sign the token with a secret key. When we run this code, we'll get a token that looks something like this:


b'eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMjM0LCJleHAiOjE2MjMwNTY5MDh9.ikh2xIzGc5K5rZMvR8WzgVfL_jKtBVqYHq3yWJzVgHc'

Sending a JWT Token with Python Requests

Now that we have a JWT token, we can use it to authenticate requests using Python Requests. Here's an example of how to send a GET request with a JWT token:


import requests

url = 'http://example.com/api'
headers = {'Authorization': 'Bearer {}'.format(token.decode())}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

In this example, we're sending a GET request to 'http://example.com/api' with an Authorization header that includes our JWT token. When we run this code, we should get a JSON response from the API.

Conclusion

Using Python Requests with JWT tokens is fairly straightforward. We can create a JWT token using the PyJWT library, and we can then use that token to authenticate requests using Python Requests. With this knowledge, we can build secure and reliable applications that use JWT-based authentication.

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