Angular 4.3 - HTTP Interceptor - refresh JWT token

Question

I need to react (in interceptor class) on 403 Forbidden HTTP status (to obtain/refresh) JWT token and retry the request with fresh token.

In the code below, when server return error response it goes to success callback (not into the error callback as I expect) and the event is typeof object (which is useless in reaction on error response). The event object looks like this: {type:0}.

Question:

-How to properly handle httpErrorResponse (403 Forbidden) in HttpInterceptor when I need refresh accessToken and retry the http request?

 import {
  HttpInterceptor,
  HttpRequest,
  HttpResponse,
  HttpHandler,
  HttpEvent
} from '@angular/common/http';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/map';

@Injectable()
class JWTInterceptor implements HttpInterceptor {

  constructor(private tokenService: TokenService) {}
  intercept(req: HttpRequest<any>, next: HttpHandler): Observable<HttpEvent<any>> {
  let myHeaders = req.headers;
  if (this.tokenService.accessToken) {
        myHeaders = myHeaders.append('Authorization',`${this.tokenService.accessToken.token_type} ${this.tokenService.accessToken.access_token}`)
   }

  const authReq = req.clone({headers: myHeaders});

    return next.handle(authReq).map((event: HttpEvent<any>) => {
      if (event instanceof HttpResponse) {
        // success callback
      }
    }, (err: any) => {
      if (err instanceof HttpErrorResponse {
        if (err.status === 403) {
          // error callback
          this.tokenService.obtainAccessToken()
        }
      }
    })
      .retry(1);
  }
}

Answer 1

My final solution to this problem:

@Injectable()
export class WebApiInterceptor implements HttpInterceptor {
  constructor(private tokenService: TokenService) {
  }

  intercept(req: HttpRequest<any>, next: HttpHandler): Observable<HttpEvent<any>> {
    console.log('*An intercepted httpRequest*', req, this.tokenService.accessToken);
    const authReq = this.authenticateRequest(req);
    console.log('*Updated httpRequest*', authReq);
    return next.handle(authReq)
      .map((event: HttpEvent<any>) => {
        if (event instanceof HttpResponse) {
          console.log('*An intercepted httpResponse*', event);
          return event;
        }
      })
      .catch((error: any) => {
        if (error instanceof HttpErrorResponse) {
          if (error.status === 403 && error.url !== environment.authEndpoint) {
            return this.tokenService
              .obtainAccessToken()
              .flatMap((token) => {
                const authReqRepeat = this.authenticateRequest(req);
                console.log('*Repeating httpRequest*', authReqRepeat);
                return next.handle(authReqRepeat);
              });
          }
        } else {
          return Observable.throw(error);
        }
      })
  }
}

Function

authenticateRequest(req)

just adds Authorization header to the copy of original request

Function

obtainAccessToken()

get fresh token form authorization server and stores it

Answer 2

You need to add the catch operator from RxJS. This is where an error will be, and you can handle it accordingly.

When you get an error of status 0, that most likely means the remote server is down and the connection could not be made.

Take a look at my example logic:

this.http.request(url, options)
        .map((res: Response) => res.json())
        .catch((error: any) => {
            const err = error.json();

            // Refresh JWT
            if (err.status === 403) {
                // Add your token refresh logic here.
            }

            return Observable.throw(err);
        });

In order to get your refresh logic to go through the interceptor, you need to return the invocation, and the function should also return an Observable. For example modifying the original logic above:

this.http.request(url, options)
        .map((res: Response) => res.json())
        .catch((error: any) => {
            const err = error.json();

            // Refresh JWT
            if (err.status === 403) {
                // refreshToken makes another HTTP call and returns an Observable.
                return this.refreshToken(...);
            }

            return Observable.throw(err);
        });

If you want to be able to retry the original request, what you can do is pass the original request data so that on successfully refreshing the token you can make the call again. For example, this is what your refreshToken function could look like:

refreshToken(url: stirng, options: RequestOptionsArgs, body: any, tokenData: any): Observable<any>
    return this.post(`${this.url}/token/refresh`, tokenData)
        .flatMap((res: any) => {
            // This is where I retry the original request
            return this.request(url, options, body);
        });
}