NAME¶

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

VERSION¶

version 1.26

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. If the extra data hash contains a key 'auto_validate', the value of that key will be used as the UID, and authenticate will not call your validate_user callback; this can be used when working with oAuth tokens or other authentication mechnisms that do not use a local username and password form.

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 <http://mojocasts.com/e3#>

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:

•

AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation

<http://annocpan.org/dist/Mojolicious-Plugin-Authentication>

•

CPAN Ratings

<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Mojolicious-Plugin-Authentication>

•

Search CPAN

<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Mojolicious-Plugin-Authentication/>

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.