Django JWT Get User Info - django

Question

I'm using Django JWT authentication with the Django Rest Framework.
How can I get user info of the logged in user after I retrieve the token?

Answer 1

just check your app settings file, whether you have specified the jwt authentication backend or not.
if it mentioned there and if you are using User model ( in otherwords django.contrib.auth.models.User) request.user will work
If you are using your own custom User model
from django.conf import settings
from rest_framework import authentication
from rest_framework import exceptions
from rest_framework.authentication import get_authorization_header
import CustomUser # just import your model here
import jwt
class JWTAuthentication(authentication.BaseAuthentication):
def authenticate(self, request): # it will return user object
try:
token = get_authorization_header(request).decode('utf-8')
if token is None or token == "null" or token.strip() == "":
raise exceptions.AuthenticationFailed('Authorization Header or Token is missing on Request Headers')
print(token)
decoded = jwt.decode(token, settings.SECRET_KEY)
username = decoded['username']
user_obj = CustomUser.objects.get(username=username)
except jwt.ExpiredSignature :
raise exceptions.AuthenticationFailed('Token Expired, Please Login')
except jwt.DecodeError :
raise exceptions.AuthenticationFailed('Token Modified by thirdparty')
except jwt.InvalidTokenError:
raise exceptions.AuthenticationFailed('Invalid Token')
except Exception as e:
raise exceptions.AuthenticationFailed(e)
return (user_obj, None)
def get_user(self, userid):
try:
return CustomUser.objects.get(pk=userid)
except Exception as e:
return None
and add the following settings in your app
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': (
'path_to_custom_authentication_backend',
....
)
}
now in each view/viewset you can access the user object with request.user

Answer 2

By reading the documentation on DRF Authentication and as #neverwalkaloner mentions in his comment, we see that we can access the logged-in user's django.contrib.auth.User instance in a view, by using the request.user attribute.
Reading the documentations of both the recommended JWT modules for DRF:
https://github.com/GetBlimp/django-rest-framework-jwt
https://github.com/davesque/django-rest-framework-simplejwt
I didn't find any evidence that they change/override the method of accesing the logged in user's instance info.

Answer 3

If you are familiar with django rest jwt, you may see a config like this in your settings.py:
JWT_AUTH = {
.....
'JWT_RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_HANDLER':
'rest_framework_jwt.utils.jwt_response_payload_handler',
'JWT_SECRET_KEY': SECRET_KEY,
....
}
You can simply create a method for example my_custom_jwt_response_payload_handler like below and address JWT_RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_HANDLER to new handler:
def jwt_response_payload_handler(token, user=None, request=None):
return {
'token': token,
'user': {
'username': user.username, 'id': user.id,
...
}
}
You can add any data that you want in this response. then patch settings.py with your new handler:
JWT_AUTH = {
.....
'JWT_RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_HANDLER':
'localtion-to-my-own-handler-file.my_custom_jwt_response_payload_handler',
....
}
For better understanding i suggest read original source and comments for jwt_response_payload_handler in here

Answer 4

Once you logged in, means you are authenticated by Django, now you can retrieve current user details anywhere in the code.
request.user
request contains all the details of the User Model once the user gets authenticated. otherwise, it will show the Anonymus user.