ReactJS does not keep the stateful session from Laravel Sanctum on a specific form submission. How can I keep the session alive and available for the next request?

Updated: Feb 01, 2025

ReactJS does not keep the stateful session from Laravel Sanctum on a specific form submission. How can I keep the session alive and available for the next request?

To keep the stateful session from Laravel Sanctum alive and available for the next request in a ReactJS application, you need to ensure proper management of the authentication token in your application. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you achieve this:

  1. Set up Laravel Sanctum: First, make sure you have Laravel Sanctum installed and configured in your Laravel application. Sanctum is a modern, easy-to-use authentication system for Laravel that provides stateful API authentication.

  2. Generate an API key: Generate an API key for your application by running the following command in your terminal:

php artisan sanctum:generate

This command will generate a new API key that you can use to authenticate your ReactJS application.

  1. Install Axios: Install Axios in your ReactJS application to make HTTP requests to your Laravel API. Axios is a popular library for making HTTP requests in JavaScript.
npm install axios
  1. Create an api.js file: Create an api.js file in the src directory of your ReactJS application to handle all your API requests.
import axios from 'axios';

const api = axios.create({
  baseURL: 'http://localhost:8000/api',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + localStorage.getItem('token'),
  },
});

export default api;
  1. Set up interceptors: Set up interceptors in your api.js file to automatically add the authentication token to every request.
api.interceptors.request.use(
  config => {
    config.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${localStorage.getItem('token')}`;
    return config;
  },
  error => Promise.reject(error)
);
  1. Handle authentication: Handle authentication in your ReactJS application by storing the token in the browser's local storage and setting it up in the api.js file.
// src/App.js
import React, { useEffect } from 'react';
import { useDispatch, useSelector } from 'react-redux';
import { login, logout } from './actions/auth';
import { loadUser } from './actions/user';
import api from './api';

function App() {
  const dispatch = useDispatch();
  const { isAuthenticated, user } = useSelector(state => state.auth);

  useEffect(() => {
    const token = localStorage.getItem('token');

    if (token) {
      dispatch(login(token));
      api.get('/user').then(res => {
        dispatch(loadUser(res.data));
      });
    } else {
      dispatch(logout());
    }
  }, []);

  return (
    // Your application JSX goes here
  );
}

export default App;
  1. Implement form submission: When submitting a form, make sure to send the CSRF token along with the request to maintain the session.
// src/components/MyForm.js
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import api from '../api';

function MyForm() {
  const [data, setData] = useState({});

  const handleChange = e => {
    setData({ ...data, [e.target.name]: e.target.value });
  };

  const handleSubmit = async e => {
    e.preventDefault();

    const response = await api.post('/api/my-route', data);

    // Handle the response here
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
      {/* Your form elements go here */}
      <button type="submit">Submit</button>
    </form>
  );
}

export default MyForm;

By following these steps, you should be able to keep the stateful session from Laravel Sanctum alive and available for the next request in your ReactJS application.