Can't get Auth login to work with CakePHP 2.0 - forms

Question

I'm trying to get a simple login form to work using CakePHP 2.0... just Auth, no ACLs for now.
I'm able to see the form and enter the email and password as they are in the database, but I just get returned to the form and the flash error message is displayed. Here is my code:
AppController:
class AppController extends Controller
{
function beforeFilter()
{
$this->Auth->userModel = 'Users';
$this->Auth->fields = array('username' => 'email', 'password' => 'password'); //have to put both, even if we're just changing one
$this->Auth->loginAction = array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'login');
$this->Auth->loginRedirect = array('controller' => 'hotels', 'action' => 'dashboard');
$this->Auth->logoutRedirect = array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'login');
}
}
login.ctp:
<?php
echo $this->Form->create('User', array('action' => 'login'));
echo $this->Form->input('email');
echo $this->Form->input('password');
echo $this->Form->end('Login');
?>
UsersController:
class UsersController extends AppController
{
var $name = 'Users';
var $helpers = array('Html','Form');
var $components = array('Auth','Session');
function beforeFilter()
{
$this->Auth->allow("logout");
parent::beforeFilter();
}
function index() { } //Redirects to login()
function login()
{
if ($this->Auth->login())
{
$this->redirect($this->Auth->redirect());
} else
{
$this->Session->setFlash(__('Invalid username or password, try again'));
}
}
function logout()
{
$this->redirect($this->Auth->logout());
}
}
?>
I appreciate any help with this. Thanks!

Answer 1

The "Invalid username or password, try again" error is displayed after you hit login?
There are a few things you should check:
• Is the output of $this->Auth->login() identical to the information in your database? Put debug($this->Auth->login()) to see the output in your login method after the form is submitted.
• Are the passwords correctly hashed in the database?
• Try making the AuthComponent available to all your controllers not just the UsersController.
• Not sure if this makes a difference, but call parent::beforeFilter(); before anything else in your controller's beforeFilter method.
EDIT:
Is see that you're trying to validate based on email and password. As a default AuthComponent expects a username and password. You have to explicitly state that you want the email and password to be validated by $this->Auth->login(). This comes from the 2.0 documentation:
public $components = array(
'Auth'=> array(
'authenticate' => array(
'Form' => array(
'fields' => array('username' => 'email')
)
)
)
);
The fact that you're not seeing any SQL output is to be expected, I believe.

Answer 2

Also you must check if your field "password" in database is set to VARCHAR 50.
It happens to me that I was truncating the hashed password in DB and Auth never happened.

Answer 3

if you are not using defalut "username", "password" to auth, you cant get login
e.g., you use "email"
you should edit component declaration in your controller containing your login function:
$component = array('Auth' => array(
'authenticate' => array(
'Form' => array(
'fields' => array('username' => 'email', 'password' => 'mot_de_passe')
)
)
));

Answer 4

Becareful with cakephp's conventions. You should change this "$this->Auth->userModel = 'Users';" to "$this->Auth->userModel = 'User';" because User without plural is the Model's convention in cake. That worked for me and also becareful with the capital letters. it almost drived me crazy. Good luck.

Answer 5

public $components = array(
'Session',
'Auth' => array(
'loginRedirect' => array(
'controller' => 'Events',
'action' => 'index'
),
'logoutRedirect' => array(
'controller' => 'Users',
'action' => 'login',
'home'
),
'authenticate' => array(
'Form' => array(
'fields' => array('username' => 'username','password' => 'password')
)
)
)
);

Answer 6

Editing the component declaration in AppController did the trick for me. If you have the fields named other than "username" and "password" you should always specify them. In your case it would be
public $components = array(
'Auth' => array(
'authenticate' => array(
'Form' => array(
'passwordHasher' => 'Blowfish',
'fields' => array('username' => 'email','password' => 'password')
)
)
)
);

Answer 7

There is a bug in the cakephp tutorial.
$this->Auth->login() should be changed to
$this->Auth->login($this->request->data)