Laravel 5 authenticate users through external API

Question

I'd like to know is it possible to extend the built-in authentication to use an external API to authenticate a user? I'm a Laravel newbie, so I'd appreciate your help. I'm making a custom app in Laravel 5.2 for my client, but I don't a direct access to their database server and I can only call their API to get users' details.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If I understood correctly you want to log users from APIs like facebook, twitter or github for example ? If that's so you need to use a laravel package named Socialite, here is the link to download and use it : https://github.com/laravel/socialite

run on your command this :

composer require laravel/socialite

Next you need to tell laravel you want to use this package, so you need to add this in config/app.php :

'providers' => [
// Other service providers...

Laravel\Socialite\SocialiteServiceProvider::class,
],

and this is the aliases :

'Socialite' => Laravel\Socialite\Facades\Socialite::class,

Basically, you'll need to create an app on the developers site, i'll take facebook for this example.You need to go to this site : https://developers.facebook.com/, create an account and you'll get your app url and secret key. You'll use it on your .env and config/services files.

In your config/services file add this after stripe :

'facebook' => [
    'client_id' => env('FACEBOOK_ID'),
    'client_secret' => env('FACEBOOK_SECRET'),
    'redirect' => env('FACEBOOK_URL'),
],

And in your .env file :

FACEBOOK_ID=*your facebook id*
FACEBOOK_SECRET=*your facebook secret*
FACEBOOK_URL=http://yourwebsite.com/callback

Next you'll need a controller to handle the auth process, create something like SocialAuthController and put this in :

public function redirect()
{
    return Socialite::driver('facebook')->redirect();
}

public function callback() {
    $user = $this->findOrCreateFbUser(Socialite::driver('facebook')->user());


    session([
        'user' => $user
    ]);
    return redirect()->route('/');

}

public function logout() {

    session()->forget('user');

    return redirect()->route('home');
}

protected function findOrCreateFbUser($fbUser) {
    // the data you want to get from facebook
    $fbData = [
        'facebook_id'   => $fbUser->id,
        'avatar'        => $fbUser->avatar,
        'username'      => $fbUser->name,
        'email'         => $fbUser->email,
    ];

    $user = \App\User::where('facebook_id', $fbData['facebook_id'])->first();

    if(!$user) $user = \App\User::create($fbData);

    $user->update([
        'avatar' => $fbUser->avatar,
        'username' => $fbUser->name,
        'email' => $fbUser->email
    ]);


    return $user;
}

Of course you need to add a facebook_id field in your user database and model. In User.php :

protected $fillable = [
    'facebook_id',
    'username',
    'email',
    'avatar'

];

I know this solution isn't really dynamic as it is for only one api, i'm still pretty new at Laravel too and this is my first answer to a stackoverflowquestion, but this did the trick for me :) If I forgot something don't hesitate to tell me so i can update this answer..

I also suggest you follow Jeffrey Way's tutorial on social auth on the Laracasts website, it's very instructive and clear, i could manage it thanks to him !