Login and Authentication with Symfony

Hello, friends!!! How are you doing? Hope good. In this tutorial we will learn about Symfony authentication system. This tutorial is the continuation of previous Symfony tutorials. So, you may be puzzled if you do not complete previous posts.

HTTP Authentication
The Security component can be configured via your application configuration. In fact, most standard security setups are just a matter of using the right configuration. There are five basic steps to configure Symfony security system:

Configure security.yml file as needed
Create your routing in routing.yml
Create a security controller to SecurityController.php
Create view for your login in
Configure your page as needed

Let’s assume in our book inventory system, we want only admin can login, edit and delete all the books. Other normal users only can see the front page. Without login, they cannot do anything other then view the page.

So, let’s start.

Step 1: Configure security.yml file as needed
Open app/config/security.yml with your IDE. Write the following code segment after deleting, whatever you have before.

security:
    encoders:
      Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\User: plaintext
    role_hierarchy:
      ROLE_ADMIN: [ROLE_USER]
    providers:
      chain_provider:
        chain:
          providers: [in_memory]
      in_memory:
        memory:
          users:
            admin: {password: adminpass, roles: ROLE_ADMIN}
    firewalls:
      main:
        pattern: /.*
        form_login:
          login_path: /login
          check_path: /login_check
          default_target_path: /book
        logout:
          path: /logout
          target: /book
        security: true
        anonymous: true


    access_control:
      - { path: /login, roles: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
      - { path: /.*, roles: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }

Don’t be scared most of the code is boilerplate code. What you need to concentrate is the access control. Rest of the code you can get from the documentation. In this code we have created five nodes:

encoders in line 2
role_hierarchy in 4
providers in line 6
firewalls in line 14
access_control in line 28

Step 2: Create your routing in routing.yml
Open src/custom/BookBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml and create three route for login, login check and logout.

custom_book_book:
    resource: "@CustomBookBundle/Resources/config/routing/book.yml"
    prefix:   /book

custom_book_homepage:
    path:     /hello
    defaults: { _controller: CustomBookBundle:Default:index }


login:
  path: /login
  defaults: { _controller: CustomBookBundle:Security:login }

login_check:
  path: /login_check

logout:
  pattern: /logout

From line 1-7 is already created for our previous tutorials. We need to add only from line 10-18. Here we have created the paths for our login, login_check and logout. We only need to create the functionality for our login. login_check and logout will be handled by our mighty Symfony.

Step 3: Create a security controller to SecurityController.php
Now create a new controller for our security, src/custom/BookBundle/Controller/SecurityController.php.

namespace Custom\BookBundle\Controller;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\SecurityContextInterface;

class SecurityController extends Controller
{
    public function loginAction(Request $request)
    {
        $session = $request->getSession();

        // get the login error if there is one
        if ($request->attributes->has(SecurityContextInterface::AUTHENTICATION_ERROR)) {
            $error = $request->attributes->get(
                SecurityContextInterface::AUTHENTICATION_ERROR
            );
        } elseif (null !== $session && $session->has(SecurityContextInterface::AUTHENTICATION_ERROR)) {
            $error = $session->get(SecurityContextInterface::AUTHENTICATION_ERROR);
            $session->remove(SecurityContextInterface::AUTHENTICATION_ERROR);
        } else {
            $error = '';
        }


        return $this->render(
            'CustomBookBundle:Security:login.html.twig',
            array(
                'error'         => $error,
            )
        );
    }
}

Step 4: Create view for your login in
So, you need to create a new folder called Security inside views and create a new twig file for your login. src/custom/BookBundle/Resources/views/Security/login.html.twig

{% extends '::base.html.twig' %}

{% block body %}
    {% if error %}
        <div>{{ error.message }}</div>
    {% endif %}

    <form action="{{ path('login_check') }}" method="post">
        <label for="username">Username:</label>
        <input type="text" id="username" name="_username" />

        <label for="password">Password:</label>
        <input type="password" id="password" name="_password" />

        <button type="submit">login</button>
    </form>

{% endblock %}

Step 5: Configure your page as needed
In this step, most of the files are created before. We only modify some code segment for our purpose.

Open app/Resources/views/base.html.twig with your IDE. I have given only fragment of code for our navbar. Rest of the code will be same.

<div id="navbar" class="navbar-collapse collapse">
                <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                    <li><a href="{{ path('book') }}">Home</a></li>

                    {% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}
                        <li><a href="{{ path('logout') }}">Logout</a></li>
                    {% else %}
                        <li><a href="{{ path('login') }}">Login</a></li>
                    {% endif %}
                </ul>
            </div>

In line 6 we have checked, if the admin is logged in or not. If logged in, the show the link for logout otherwise login menu item will be displayed.

Open src/Custom/BookBundle/Resources/views/Book/index.html.twig file.

{% extends '::base.html.twig' %}

{% block body -%}
    <h1>Book list {% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}<span><a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" href="{{ path('book_new') }}"
                                                            rold="button">
                Create a new entry
            </a></span>{% endif %}</h1>

    <div class="table-responsive">
        <table class="records_list table table-striped table-bordered">
            <thead>
            <tr>
                {% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}
                    <th>Id</th>
                {% endif %}
                <th>Name</th>
                <th>Author</th>
                <th>Language</th>
                <th>Publisher</th>
                <th>Summary</th>
                {% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}
                    <th>Actions</th>
                {% endif %}
            </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
            {% for entity in entities %}
                <tr>
                    {% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}
                        <td><a href="{{ path('book_show', { 'id': entity.id }) }}">{{ entity.id }}</a></td>
                    {% endif %}
                    <td>{{ entity.name }}</td>
                    <td>{{ entity.author }}</td>
                    <td>{{ entity.language }}</td>
                    <td>{{ entity.publisher }}</td>
                    <td>{{ entity.summary }}</td>
                    {% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}
                        <td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">
                            <ul style="list-style-type: none;">
                                <li>
                                    <a class="btn btn-default btn-xs"
                                       href="{{ path('book_show', { 'id': entity.id }) }}">show</a>
                                </li>
                                <li style="margin-top: 10px;">
                                    <a class="btn btn-default btn-xs"
                                       href="{{ path('book_edit', { 'id': entity.id }) }}">edit</a>
                                </li>
                            </ul>
                        </td>
                    {% endif %}
                </tr>
            {% endfor %}
            </tbody>
        </table>
    </div>



{% endblock %}

Before there were seven columns in our index view. But only admin can see the all the seven columns. Others will not see two columns which are for view and edit and delete. That’s why we have checked the credentials in line 4, 13, 21, 29 and 37. Rest of the code will be same.

We are all done.

Now open your browser and go to http://localhost/symfony/web/app_dev.php/book/. Login with:

User name: admin
Password: adminpass

This page is for anonymous user–

After login the admin will see the following page –

By the way, you can download all the code from my –
Git Ripo

Happy coding…

Login and Authentication with Symfony

Shahjalal

Hej, I’m from Bangladesh. Learning programming is one of the freaking decisions I have taken in my life. Because, it makes me and my life crazy. I have great weakness on open source technologies. Perhaps, that’s why I do not know any closed source language. I fall in love with programming, when I started my undergraduate in East West University. Till now, I can not live without it.