The Bakery Everything CakePHP

The follow steps should guide you through the setup process and the files you need to alter.

Of course, you will need to have the models for your User table (and groups if applicable).

I would often use the following with a $hasAndBelongsToMany association (I pretty much always use the first 4 fields of the users and groups tables with cake):

CREATE TABLE `users` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`created` datetime default NULL,
`modified` datetime default NULL,
`live` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default 0,
`username` varchar(16) NOT NULL default '',
`password` varchar(32) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

CREATE TABLE `groups` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`created` datetime default NULL,
`modified` datetime default NULL,
`live` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default 0,
`name` varchar(32) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

CREATE TABLE `groups_users` (
`group_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`user_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
KEY `group_id` (`group_id`,`user_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Look at the Cake Manual for how to setup the Models for these tables.

If you don't use the HABTM association, then remember to set var HABTM = false; later. This will then assume that the user $belongsTo a group (and therefore you'd need a "group_id" field in your "users" table).

Now we have 5 (or 6) steps to a working, powerful authentication system!

Step 1: Modify AppController

I decided this was the easiest way as then your whole site knows about the Authentication, however I can see how it might put unnecessary load on in some situations.

This allows all controllers/views access to the auth component/data. In app_controller.php:

Controller Class:

<?php 
class AppController extends Controller {
    var $uses = array ('YOUR_MODEL_FOR_USERS');
    var $components = array('DarkAuth');
  }
?>

Where YOUR_MODEL_FOR_USERS is the name of your user model.

NB Remember if you want to use controllers with no models you will now need to use var $uses = array(); rather than var $uses = null; or you'll get errors!

Step 2: Add Default Methods

Now add the inversal login/logout methods to your app_controller.php and auto-include the "Session" helper (or is that included by default anyway now...):

Controller Class:

<?php 
  var $helpers = array('Session');

  function _login(){
    if($this->data['DarkAuth']){
      unset($this->data['from_session']);
      $this->DarkAuth->authenticate_from_post($this->data['DarkAuth']);
      exit();
    }
  }
  
  function logout(){
    $this->DarkAuth->logout();
    // By this stage we should have redirected and exited already, but just in case we'll pass them back to home...
    $this->redirect($this->referer()); //thanks to everyone who spotted this.
  }
?>

NB the logout method is called "logout" meaning you can call it from any controller at "/:controller/logout" but "_login()" won't be available, meaning you can create your own login page in a controller/page.

Step 3: Add the Views

Now we need to add the views for this component. They should be in the root of you views folder as we will need to call them from arbitrary controllers.

The 2 files are totally up to you except that the login page must pass the following data in the form:

[DarkAuth][username],
[DarkAuth][password]

and optionally if you have set the "$allow_cookie" variable:

[DarkAuth][remember_me],
[DarkAuth][cookie_expires],

Here are the templates I use:

View Template:

      
<?php /* View for login.ctp */ ?>
  
<h2>Login</h2>
  <div id='loginbox'>
      <?php 
    echo $form->create('DarkAuth',array('url'=>substr($this->here,strlen($this->base))));
        echo "\n<div class='input required'>";
    echo $form->input('username', array('div'=>false));
    echo "</div>";
    echo "\n<div class='input required'>";
    echo $form->label('password');
        echo $form->password('DarkAuth/password');
    echo "</div>\n";
        
/* if you want to use cookies uncomment this. */
/*
      echo "<div class='input required'>";
      echo $form->checkbox('DarkAuth/remember_me');
      echo $form->label('Remember Me? (uses cookies)');
      echo "</div>\n";
      echo "<div class='input required'>";
      echo $form->label('If so, for how long?');
      echo $form->select('DarkAuth/cookie_expiry',array(
                                                        '+1 week'=>'in a week',
                                                        '+1 Months'=>'in a month',
                                                        '+6 Months'=>'in 6 months',
                                                        ));
      echo "</div>\n";
      
/* end of cookie bits */
        
     echo $form->end('Login');
  ?>
  </div>
  
<?php /* View for deny.ctp */ ?>
  
<h2>Access Denied</h2>
<p>Sorry you don't have sufficient permission to access this page!</p>


Step 4: Edit the Component Setup Variables

Edit the class variables in this file to match your model structure.
these are in the top of the class definition on the previous page.

Step 5: Customise the password hasher

Change the "hasher()" function to match the way you store passwords in your model.
By default the hasher simply md5 hashes the input. you may wish to add salt, or encrypt in a different way.

Step 6 (optional): Create a Logout Route

Set up a route in you routes.php to allow you to logout in a nice way. Otherwise, you need to call "/controller/logout". I personally usually use my "Users" controller for this.

  Router::connect('/logout', array('controller' => 'ANY_CONTROLLER', 'action' => 'logout'));


And that's all

It sounds like a lot when I write it down, but actually it's not hard and the effect is great and easy to use. I haven't looked at Cake's own to know whether this is better / worse , simpler / more complex but it works for me and perhap you need something exactly like this!