Laravel API TOKEN authentication not working

Question

I am trying to authenticate user with api authentication token. But even after using correct token its saying unauthorized.

I am using laravel auth and socialite for social authentication so my api.php route is like this

Route::group(['middleware'=>'auth:api'], function(){
  Route::get('hello','ApiTestControler@index');
});

And i m trying to access this with this url

http://localhost:8000/api/hello and in the header

token: TOKEN HERE 
Content-Type: application/json 
Accept: application/json

I was expecting it to log me in and show the ApiTestController index methord

But its throwing an error 401 unauthorized How do i fix this issue and get user authenticate using the API token?

My controller

 class ApiTestController extends Controller
{
  public function index(){
    return json_encode ("Welcome REST API");
  }
}

User migration table

        $table->increments('id');
        $table->string('name')->unique();
        $table->string('first_name')->nullable();
        $table->string('last_name')->nullable();
        $table->string('email')->unique()->nullable();
        $table->string('password');
        $table->rememberToken();
        $table->boolean('activated')->default(false);
        $table->string('token');
        $table->ipAddress('signup_ip_address')->nullable();
        $table->ipAddress('signup_confirmation_ip_address')->nullable();
        $table->ipAddress('signup_sm_ip_address')->nullable();
        $table->ipAddress('admin_ip_address')->nullable();
        $table->ipAddress('updated_ip_address')->nullable();
        $table->ipAddress('deleted_ip_address')->nullable();
        $table->timestamps();
        $table->softDeletes();

And the auth configuration in config\auth.php

'guards' => [
        'web' => [
            'driver'   => 'session',
            'provider' => 'users',
        ],

        'api' => [
            'driver'   => 'token',
            'provider' => 'users',
        ],
      ]

Answer 1

The only thing that i found it can cause the problem is the name of the token column in the database, it sould be api_token, so change the migration to this :

$table->increments('id');
$table->string('name')->unique();
$table->string('first_name')->nullable();
$table->string('last_name')->nullable();
$table->string('email')->unique()->nullable();
$table->string('password');
$table->rememberToken();
$table->boolean('activated')->default(false);
$table->string('api_token', 60)->unique();     //<-- this one here
$table->ipAddress('signup_ip_address')->nullable();
$table->ipAddress('signup_confirmation_ip_address')->nullable();
$table->ipAddress('signup_sm_ip_address')->nullable();
$table->ipAddress('admin_ip_address')->nullable();
$table->ipAddress('updated_ip_address')->nullable();
$table->ipAddress('deleted_ip_address')->nullable();
$table->timestamps();
$table->softDeletes();

Do not forget to refresh the database, and one more thing to get the authenticated user you have to use :

Auth::guard('api')->user()

Instead of :

Auth::user()