NAME

Mojolicious::Plugin::Authentication - A plugin to make authentication a bit easier

VERSION

version 1.24

SYNOPSIS

use Mojolicious::Plugin::Authentication

$self->plugin('authentication' => {
    'autoload_user' => 1,
    'session_key' => 'wickedapp',
    'load_user' => sub { ... },
    'validate_user' => sub { ... },
    'current_user_fn' => 'user', # compatibility with old code
});

if ($self->authenticate('username', 'password', { optional => 'extra data stuff' })) {
    ... 
}

METHODS

authenticate($username, $password, $extra_data_hashref)

Authenticate will use the supplied load_user and validate_user subroutine refs to see whether a user exists with the given username and password, and will set up the session accordingly. Returns true when the user has been successfully authenticated, false otherwise. You can pass additional data along in the extra_data hashref, it will be passed to your validate_user subroutine as-is.

is_user_authenticated

Returns true if current_user() returns some valid object, false otherwise.

current_user

Returns the user object as it was returned from the supplied load_user subroutine ref.

reload_user

Flushes the current user object and then returns user().

signature_exists

Returns true if uid signature exist on the client side (in cookies), false otherwise.

Warning: non-secure check! Use this method only for a "fast & dirty" lookup to see if the client has the proper cookies. May be helpful in some cases (for example - in counting 'guest'/'logged users' or for additional non-confidential information for 'logged users' but not for 'guest').

logout

Removes the session data for authentication, and effectively logs a user out.

CONFIGURATION

The following options can be set for the plugin:

load_user (REQUIRED) A coderef for user loading (see "USER LOADING")
validate_user (REQUIRED) A coderef for user validation (see "USER VALIDATION")
session_key (optional) The name of the session key
autoload_user (optional) Turn on/off automatic loading of user data - user data can be loaded only if it be used. May reduce site latency in some cases.
current_user_fn (optional) Set the name for the current_user() helper function

In order to set the session expiry time, use the following in your startup routine:

$app->plugin('authentication', { ... });
$app->sessions->default_expiration(86400); # set expiry to 1 day
$app->sessions->default_expiration(3600); # set expiry to 1 hour

USER LOADING

The coderef you pass to the load_user configuration key has the following signature:

sub { 
    my ($app, $uid) = @_;
    ...
    return $user;
}

The uid is the value that was originally returned from the validate_user coderef. You must return either a user object (it can be a hashref, arrayref, or a blessed object) or undef.

USER VALIDATION

User validation is what happens when we need to authenticate someone. The coderef you pass to the validate_user configuration key has the following signature:

sub {
    my ($app, $username, $password, $extradata) = @_;
    ...
    return $uid;
}

You must return either a user id or undef. The user id can be numerical or a string. Do not return hashrefs, arrayrefs or objects, since the behaviour of this plugin could get a little bit on the odd side of weird if you do that.

EXAMPLES

For a code example using this, see the t/01-functional.t and t/02-functional_lazy.t tests, it uses Mojolicious::Lite and this plugin.

ROUTING VIA CONDITION

This plugin also exports a routing condition you can use in order to limit access to certain documents to only authenticated users.

$r->route('/foo')->over(authenticated => 1)->to('mycontroller#foo');

my $authenticated_only = $r->route('/members')->over(authenticated => 1)->to('members#index');
$authenticated_only->route('online')->to('members#online');

If someone is not authenticated, these routes will not be considered by the dispatcher and unless you have set up a catch-all route, a 404 Not Found will be generated instead.

And another condition for fast and unsecured checking for users, having a signature (without validating it). This method just checks client cookies for uid data existing.

$r->route('/foo')->over(signed => 1)->to('mycontroller#foo');

This behavior is similar to the "authenticated" condition.

ROUTING VIA CALLBACK

If you want to be able to send people to a login page, you will have to use the following:

my $members_only = $r->route('/members')->to(cb => sub {
    my $self = shift;

    $self->redirect_to('/login') and return 0 unless($self->is_user_authenticated);
    return 1;
});

$members_only->route('online')->to('members#online');

Lazy and unsecured methods:

my $members_only = $r->route('/unimportant')->to(cb => sub {
    my $self = shift;

    $self->redirect_to('/login') and return 0 unless($self->signature_exists);
    return 1;
});

$members_only->route('pages')->to('unimportant#pages');

ROUTING VIA BRIDGE

If you want to be able to send people to a login page, you will have to use the following:

my $auth_bridge = $r->bridge('/members')->to('auth#check');
$auth_bridge->route('/list')->to('members#list'); # only visible to logged in users

And in your Auth controller you would put:

sub check {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->redirect_to('/login') and return 0 unless($self->is_user_authenticated);
    return 1;
});

Lazy and unsecured methods:

sub check {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->redirect_to('/login') and return 0 unless($self->signature_exists);
    return 1;
});

SEE ALSO

Mojolicious::Sessions, Mojocast 3: Authentication

AUTHOR

Ben van Staveren, <madcat at cpan.org>

BUGS / CONTRIBUTING

Please report any bugs or feature requests through the web interface at https://github.com/benvanstaveren/mojolicious-plugin-authentication/issues.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

perldoc Mojolicious::Plugin::Authentication

You can also look for information at:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Andrew Parker - For pointing out some bugs that crept in; a silent reminder not to code while sleepy

Mirko Westermeier (memowe) - For doing some (much needed) code cleanup

Terrence Brannon (metaperl) - Documentation patches

Karpich Dmitry (meettya) - lazy_mode and signature_exists functionality, including a test and documentation

Ivo Welch - For donating his first ever Mojolicious application that shows an example of how to use this module

Ed W - Adding the current_user() functionality, as well as some method renaming to make things a bit more sane.

SailingYYC (Github) - For reporting an issue with routing conditions; I really should not code while sleepy, brainfarts imminent!

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2011-2012 Ben van Staveren.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.

See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.