App\Http\Controllers\api\v1\AuthenticateController::authenticate PHP Method

    public function authenticate(Request $request)
    {
        // grab credentials from the request
        $credentials = $request->only('email', 'password');
        try {
            // attempt to verify the credentials and create a token for the user
            if (!($token = JWTAuth::attempt($credentials))) {
                return response()->json(['error' => 'invalid_credentials'], 401);
            }
        } catch (JWTException $e) {
            // something went wrong whilst attempting to encode the token
            return response()->json(['error' => 'could_not_create_token'], 500);
        }
        // all good so return the token
        return response()->json(compact('token'));
    }