Most interactive applications have the ability for users to login and logout. Laravel provides a simple class to help you validate user credentials and retrieve information about the current user of your application.
To get started, let's look over the **application/config/auth.php** file. The authentication configuration contains three functions: **user**, **attempt**, and **logout**. Let's go over each one individually.
To get started, let's look over the **application/config/auth.php** file. The authentication configuration contains some basic options to help you get started with authentication.
<aname="user"></a>
## The "User" Function
<aname="driver"></a>
## The Authentication Driver
The **user** function is called when Laravel needs to retrieve the currently logged in user of your application. When a user logs into your application, Laravel stores the ID of that user in the [session](/docs/session/config). So, on subsequent requests, we can use the ID stored in the session to retrieve the user's information from storage. However, applications use various data stores. For this reason, you are given complete flexibility regarding how to retrieve the user.
Laravel's authentication is driver based, meaning the responsibility for retrieving users during authentication is delegated to various "drivers". Two are included out of the box: Eloquent and Fluent, but you are free to write your own drivers if needed!
Of course, a simple default configuration has been setup for you. Let's take a look:
The **Eloquent** driver uses the Eloquent ORM to load the users of your application, and is the default authentication driver. The **Fluent** driver uses the fluent query builder to load your users.
'user' => function($id)
{
if ( ! is_null($id) and filter_var($id, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT) !== false)
{
return DB::table('users')->find($id);
}
}
<aname="username"></a>
## The Default "Username"
As you probably noticed, the user's ID is passed to the function. The default configuration utilizes the [fluent query builder](/docs/database/fluent) to retrieve and return the user from the database. Of course, you are free to use other methods of retrieving the user. If no user is found in storage for the given ID, the function should simply return **null**.
The second option in the configuration file determines the default "username" of your users. This will typically correspond to a database column in your "users" table, and will usually be "email" or "username".
<aname="attempt"></a>
## The "Attempt" Function
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## Authentication Model
Anytime you need to validate the credentials of a user, the **attempt** function is called. When attempting to authenticate a user, you will typically retrieve the user out of storage, and check the hashed password against the given password. However, since applications may use various methods of hashing or even third-party login providers, you are free to implement the authentication however you wish. Again, a simple and sensible default has been provided:
When using the **Eloquent** authentication driver, this option determines the Eloquent model that should be used when loading users.
if ( ! is_null($user) and Hash::check($password, $user->password))
{
return $user;
}
}
Like the previous example, the fluent query builder is used to retrieve the user out of the database by the given username. If the user is found, the given password is hashed and compared against the hashed password stored on the table, and if the passwords match, the user model is returned. If the credentials are invalid or the user does not exist, **null** should be returned.
> **Note:** Any object may be returned by this function as long as it has an **id** property.
<aname="logout"></a>
## The "Logout" Function
The **logout** function is called whenever a user is logged out of your application. This function gives you a convenient location to interact with any third-party authentication providers you may be using.
\ No newline at end of file
When using the **Fluent** authentication drivers, this option determines the database table containing the users of your application.
@@ -31,19 +31,17 @@ You can compare an unhashed value against a hashed one using the **check** metho
<aname="login"></a>
## Logging In
Logging a user into your application is simple using the **attempt** method on the Auth class. Simply pass the username and password of the user to the method. The login method will return **true** if the credentials are valid. Otherwise, **false** will be returned:
Logging a user into your application is simple using the **attempt** method on the Auth class. Simply pass the username and password of the user to the method. The credentials should be contained in an array, which allows for maximum flexibility across drivers, as some drivers may require a different number of arguments. The login method will return **true** if the credentials are valid. Otherwise, **false** will be returned:
if (Auth::attempt('example@gmail.com', 'password'))
If the user's credentials are valid, the user ID will be stored in the session and the user will be considered "logged in" on subsequent requests to your application.
You probably noticed this method name corresponds to the **attempt** function you [configured earlier](/docs/auth/config#attempt). Each time you call the **attempt** method on the **Auth** class, the **attempt** function in the configuration file will be called to check the user's credentials.
> **Note:** To provide more flexiblity when working with third-party authentication providers, you are not required to pass a password into the **attempt** method.
To determine if the user of your application is logged in, call the **check** method:
if (Auth::check())
...
...
@@ -75,8 +73,6 @@ Once a user has logged in to your application, you can access the user model via
return Auth::user()->email;
This method calls the [**user** function](/docs/auth/config#user) in the configuration file. Also, you don't need to worry about performance when using this method. The user is only retrieved from storage the first time you use the method.
> **Note:** If the user is not logged in, the **user** method will return NULL.
