In the prior installment of this series, I wrote about creating a REST API in Symfony.. I used HTTP codes with API responses and threw exceptions on bad response code.
Now what if you want to apply token based Symfony authentication and want to authenticate users through an API key. Symfony provides a very easy solution in the form of Symfony Guard authentication bundle. This bundle works with API keys and implements methods to handle Symfony user authentication and their credentials.
In this Symfony authentication example, I will show you how you can work with Guard and authenticate users via API token(s). For the purpose of this article, I am assuming that you have already launched a PHP stack server and application on Cloudways, which is widely known for its Best PHP Hosting. For help on this prerequisite, check out this guide on installing Symfony on Cloudways.
Create a User Class & Provider
To start user authentication in Symfony, I need to create a user entity class which implements UserInterface and a user provider. Symfony authentication process depends on the UserProvider. When the user hits the submit button, the user provider values are checked. After this, further verification of password takes place.
Following is the entity code:
<?php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserInterface;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="user")
*/
class User implements UserInterface
{
/**
* @ORM\Id
* @ORM\GeneratedValue
* @ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $id;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="string", unique=true)
*/
private $username;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="string", unique=true)
*/
private $email;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="string")
*/
private $password;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="json_array")
*/
private $roles = array();
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="string", unique=true)
*/
private $apiToken;
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
public function getUsername()
{
return $this->username;
}
public function setUsername($username)
{
$this->username = $username;
}
public function getEmail()
{
return $this->email;
}
public function setEmail($email)
{
$this->email = $email;
}
public function getPassword()
{
return $this->password;
}
public function setPassword($password)
{
$this->password = $password;
}
/**
* Returns the roles or permissions granted to the user for security.
*/
public function getRoles()
{
$roles = $this->roles;
// guarantees that a user always has at least one role for security
if (empty($roles)) {
$roles[] = 'ROLE_USER';
}
return array_unique($roles);
}
public function setRoles($roles)
{
$this->roles = $roles;
}
/**
* Returns the salt that was originally used to encode the password.
*/
public function getSalt()
{
return;
}
/**
* Removes sensitive data from the user.
*/
public function eraseCredentials()
{
// if you had a plainPassword property, you'd nullify it here
// $this->plainPassword = null;
}
/**
* @param string $apiToken
*/
public function setApiToken($apiToken)
{
$this->apiToken = $apiToken;
}
}
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Register the Provider in security.yml
The next step is to register the above made user provider in security.yml file, to do that add the following code:
providers: api_key_user_provider: entity: class: AppBundle:User property: apikey
I have done it here now before creating an authenticator class let’s install Guard first.
Symfony Guard Component
Guard authentication first introduced in symfony 2.8 and after that it’s now become a part of symfony core. Guard provides different layers of Symfony 3 authentication. With Guard, every step of the Symfony authentication process is handled by only one class: an Authenticator. This class will have to implement the provided GuardAuthenticatorInterface.
But still Composer is the most preferred way to install Guard in Symfony. Install with the following command:
$ composer require symfony/security-guard
Creating An Authenticator Class
Now an authenticator class is needed which implements the GuardAuthenticatorInterface and extends the AbstractGuardAuthenticator. This class will read the api token in header request and find the respective user. Create a new file: src/AppBundle/Security/TokenAuthenticator.php
namespace AppBundle\Security;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Guard\AbstractGuardAuthenticator;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Authentication\Token\TokenInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Exception\AuthenticationException;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserProviderInterface;
class TokenAuthenticator extends AbstractGuardAuthenticator
{
/**
* Called on every request. Return whatever credentials you want to
* be passed to getUser(). Returning null will cause this authenticator
* to be skipped.
*/
public function getCredentials(Request $request)
{
if (!$token = $request->headers->get('X-AUTH-TOKEN')) {
// No token?
$token = null;
}
// What you return here will be passed to getUser() as $credentials
return array(
'token' => $token,
);
}
public function getUser($credentials, UserProviderInterface $userProvider)
{
$apikey = $credentials['token'];
if (null === $apikey) {
return;
}
// if null, authentication will fail
// if a User object, checkCredentials() is called
return $userProvider->loadUserByUsername($apikey);
}
public function checkCredentials($credentials, UserInterface $user)
{
// check credentials - e.g. make sure the password is valid
// no credential check is needed in this case
// return true to cause authentication success
return true;
}
public function onAuthenticationSuccess(Request $request, TokenInterface $token, $providerKey)
{
// on success, let the request continue
return null;
}
public function onAuthenticationFailure(Request $request, AuthenticationException $exception)
{
$data = array(
'message' => strtr($exception->getMessageKey(), $exception->getMessageData())
// or to translate this message
// $this->translator->trans($exception->getMessageKey(), $exception->getMessageData())
);
return new JsonResponse($data, Response::HTTP_FORBIDDEN);
}
/**
* Called when authentication is needed, but it's not sent
*/
public function start(Request $request, AuthenticationException $authException = null)
{
$data = array(
// you might translate this message
'message' => 'Authentication Required'
);
return new JsonResponse($data, Response::HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED);
}
public function supportsRememberMe()
{
return false;
}
}
The Authentication methods are explained with comments but If you want to learn more about Guard authentication method you can learn on symfony documentation page.
Configuring The Authenticator
To configure the authenticator I need to update the firewall:
security: # ... firewalls: # ... main: anonymous: ~ logout: ~ guard: authenticators: - AppBundle\Security\TokenAuthenticator
After that register the authenticator as a service in service.yml:
services: api_key_authenticator: class: AppBundle\Security\TokenAuthenticator arguments: ["@router"]
That’s it finally everything is done now to check the response you can use curl to request it.
curl -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: username" http://your_app_url
You will be authenticated and redirected to the homepage.
You might also like: How To Implement User Authentication In Symfony Using Auth0
Final Words
Guard allows to create custom and simple authentication system which help you to move out from pain of complex authentications. So in this article I have described you how to create a token based Symfony authentication in using Symfony Guard component.
If you have any questions or queries you can comment below.
Shahroze Nawaz
Shahroze is a PHP Community Manager at Cloudways - A Managed PHP Hosting Platform. Besides his work life, he loves movies and travelling.
