SecureAuth API is a simple, introductory RESTful service designed to explore the fundamentals of token-based security with Spring Boot. Leveraging Spring Security and JWT, this project demonstrates basic user registration, authentication, and protected resource access, offering a hands-on learning experience for implementing secure Java backend applications.
- About
- Table of Contents
- Features
- Application Demonstration
- Setup and Run the Application
- Technologies
- Author
- License
All API routes for the listed features have been fully developed and are functional. As this project is purely educational, there is no front-end implementation. Below is a detailed list of the features and their status:
- User registration
- User login
- Client-only route access
- Administrator-only route access
- Token validation
Since this is a backend API, you can test it locally using Insomnia or other API testing services like Postman. Below are the images showcasing the typical workflow:
- Create a user
- Log in and obtain a JWT token
- Test general endpoints (token validation)
- Test client-only routes
- Test admin-only routes with a client token (results in failure due to lack of admin permission)
Before starting, you need to have the following tools installed on your machine: Git and Java 21+.
It’s also recommended to use an IDE like Visual Studio Code (with the Java Extension Pack) or IntelliJ IDEA.
# Clone this repository
$ git clone https://github.com/ArturColen/secure-rest-api-spring-boot-jwt.git
# Navigate to the project folder
$ cd secure-rest-api-spring-boot-jwt
# Run the application
# Option 1: If using an IDE, open the project and run the main class (annotated with @SpringBootApplication)
# Option 2: If using the terminal, run the following command:
$ ./mvnw spring-boot:runThe server will start on port 8080 by default — you can now test the API using tools like Insomnia or Postman.
The following tools and frameworks were used in the development of this project:
- Java: A high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language designed for reliability and platform independence.
- Spring Boot: A framework for building production-ready applications with minimal configuration.
- Spring Data JPA: A module of Spring for data access using the Java Persistence API (JPA).
- Spring Web: A module of Spring for building web applications, including RESTful services.
- Spring Security: A powerful and customizable authentication and access-control framework.
- Lombok: A Java library that helps reduce boilerplate code by generating common methods like getters and setters.
- H2 Database: A lightweight, in-memory database often used for development and testing.
- JWT (JSON Web Tokens): A compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties.
- Auth0: A platform for implementing authentication and authorization in applications.
 Artur Bomtempo |
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