Laravel is a popular PHP web development framework that provides a robust and secure platform for building web applications. One of the key features of Laravel is its built-in support for authentication and authorization. Authentication is the process of verifying a user’s identity, while authorization is the process of granting or denying access to certain resources or functionalities based on the user’s identity and permissions. In this blog, we will discuss how to implement authentication and authorization in Laravel development.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the implementation details, it is important to have a basic understanding of Laravel development and its components. You should also have a working knowledge of PHP and web development concepts like HTTP, sessions, and cookies. In addition, you should have a local development environment set up with Laravel installed.

Implementation

Laravel provides several tools and features for implementing authentication and authorization. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Authentication

Laravel provides a built-in authentication system that allows you to easily authenticate users and manage their sessions. The authentication system is based on guards and providers. Guards define how users are authenticated for each request, while providers define how users are retrieved from persistent storage.

Laravel comes with two guards out of the box: web and api. The web guard is used for authenticating users for web-based applications, while the api guard is used for authenticating users for APIs. You can also create custom guards if needed.

To use the authentication system, you need to define a model that represents your user and configure the guard and provider settings in your application’s configuration file. You also need to create routes and views for the login, registration, and password reset functionalities.

Here’s an example of how to configure the authentication system in Laravel:

1. Create a User model

php artisan make:model User

2. Configure the guard and provider settings in the auth.php configuration file

‘guards’ => [ ‘web’ => [ ‘driver’ => ‘session’, ‘provider’ => ‘users’,

‘providers’ => [ ‘users’ => [ ‘driver’ => ‘eloquent’, ‘model’ => App\Models\User::class, ], ],

3. Create routes for the login, registration, and password reset functionalities

Route::get(‘/login’, [AuthController::class, ‘showLoginForm’])->name(‘login’); Route::post(‘/login’, [AuthController::class, ‘login’]); Route::get(‘/register’, [AuthController::class, ‘showRegistrationForm’])->name(‘register’); Route::post(‘/register’, [AuthController::class, ‘register’]); Route::post(‘/logout’, [AuthController::class, ‘logout’])->name(‘logout’); Route::get(‘/password/reset’, [AuthController::class, ‘showResetForm’])->name(‘password.request’); Route::post(‘/password/email’, [AuthController::class, ‘sendResetLinkEmail’])->name(‘password.email’); Route::get(‘/password/reset/{token}’, [AuthController::class, ‘showResetForm’])->name(‘password.reset’); Route::post(‘/password/reset’, [AuthController::class, ‘reset’]);

4. Create views for the login, registration, and password reset functionalities

In the views folder, create the following files:

• login.blade.php
• register.blade.php
• password.email.blade.php
• password.reset.blade.php

Authorization

Authorization in Laravel development is based on policies. Policies define the rules for accessing certain resources or functionalities based on the user’s identity and permissions. A policy consists of methods that define the rules for accessing the corresponding resource or functionality. Each method should return a boolean value indicating whether the user is authorized to access the resource or functionality.

To use policies, you need to create a policy class for each model that you want to define authorization rules for. You also need to register the policy class in the AuthServiceProvider and define the corresponding authorization gates.

Here’s an example of how to implement authorization using policies in Laravel:

1. Create a policy class for a model

php artisan make:policy PostPolicy –model=Post

2. Define the rules for accessing the corresponding resource or functionality in the policy class

For example, you can define a rule that only allows the owner of a post to update or delete it:

public function update(User $user, Post $post) { return $user->id === $post->user_id; }

public function delete(User $user, Post $post) { return $user->id === $post->user_id; }

3. Register the policy class in the AuthServiceProvider

protected $policies = [ Post::class => PostPolicy::class, ];

4. Define the corresponding authorization gates

For example, you can define a gate that checks if a user is authorized to update a post:

Gate::define(‘update-post’, function (User $user, Post $post) { return $user->can(‘update’, $post); });

5. Use the authorization gates in your code

For example, you can use the authorize method in a controller to check if a user is authorized to update a post:

public function update(Request $request, Post $post) { $this->authorize(‘update-post’, $post);

Conclusion

Implementing authentication and authorization in Laravel development is essential for building secure and robust web applications. Laravel provides several tools and features for implementing authentication and authorization, including guards, providers, policies, and gates. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can implement authentication and authorization in your Laravel application and ensure that your users have access to the resources and functionalities that they are authorized to use.