Most of us use sfGuardPlugin with Symfony Framework for user management (login stuffs). It is a great, popular, and de facto plugin for doing user management in Symfony.

Here's the thing, by default, sfGuardPlugin does login using usernames, not emails. But for many projects, it is preferable and more suitable to use email for login.

In this article I would like to discuss a way to implement email login using Symfony. I've only tried this in Symfony 1.0, but this might/should work on 1.1 and 1.2. And I would be very interested to know your experience if you try this method on Symfony 1.1 or Symfony 1.2

AVOID USING USERNAME FIELD FOR STORING EMAIL!

Although this is the quickest short cut, I believe that in the longer run, it is not worth it. It is a potential security and privacy issue (explained below), and your sfGuardPlugin is 'not compatible' with all the other plugins (also explained below).

Storing email in username field is a potential security and privacy issue. This is because username and email are two columns of different purposes.

Username tend to be displayed publicly, while email should never be displayed publicly. If you store email in username field, you have to be really careful when using other plugins that depend on sfGuardPlugin, because chances are, they’d display the email stored in username field publicly.

It is also not ‘natural’ to code things like: $this->sendEmailTo($user->getUsername());

Try to use sfGuardPlugin and sfSimpleForum, and store email in username field, and you’ll understand what I mean.

So, here is my proposed way of implementing login using email

Firstly, I've implemented this with Symfony 1.0! This might/should work with 1.1 and 1.2 but I have not tried it. If you do try it on 1.1 or 1.2, I would be interested to know your experience.

Secondly, you need to install sfGuardPlugin in your project first.

1. Add few columns in user profile in schema.yml

sf_guard_user_profile:
  _attributes: { phpName: sfGuardUserProfile }
  id:
  user_id: { type: integer, foreignTable: sf_guard_user, foreignReference: id, required: true, onDelete: cascade }
  first_name: { type: varchar(30), required: true }
  last_name: { type: varchar(30), required: true }
  email: { type: varchar(128), required: true, unique: true }

Then build your model, e.g.: symfony propel-build-all (WARNING: propel-build-all will wipe out all the records in the database of your project!!!!)

2. Add retrieveByEmail in sfGuardUserProfilePeer.php

public static function retrieveByEmail($email)
{
  $c = new Criteria();
  $c->add(self::EMAIL, $email);
  $c->addJoin(self::USER_ID, sfGuardUserPeer::ID);
  $c->add(sfGuardUserPeer::IS_ACTIVE, true);
 
  return self::doSelectOne($c);
}

3. Create new validator for checking login using email rather than username

Save this as "sfGuardUserByEmailValidator.class.php" in lib folder of your project.

<?php
 
class sfGuardUserByEmailValidator extends sfValidator
{
  public function initialize($context, $parameters = null)
  {
    // initialize parent
    parent::initialize($context);
 
    // set defaults
    $this->getParameterHolder()->set('username_error', 'Email or password is not valid.');
    $this->getParameterHolder()->set('password_field', 'password');
    $this->getParameterHolder()->set('remember_field', 'remember');
 
    $this->getParameterHolder()->add($parameters);
 
    return true;
  }
 
  public function execute(&$value, &$error)
  {
    $password_field = $this->getParameterHolder()->get('password_field');
    $password = $this->getContext()->getRequest()->getParameter($password_field);
 
    $remember = false;
    $remember_field = $this->getParameterHolder()->get('remember_field');
    $remember = $this->getContext()->getRequest()->getParameter($remember_field);
 
    $email = $value;
 
    $profile = sfGuardUserProfilePeer::retrieveByEmail($email);
    if (!$profile) return false;
 
    $user = $profile->getsfGuardUser();
 
    // user exists and active?
    if ($user and $user->getIsActive())
    {
      // password is ok?
      if ($user->checkPassword($password))
      {
      $this->getContext()->getUser()->signIn($user, $remember);
 
      return true;
    }
  }
 
  $error = $this->getParameterHolder()->get('username_error');
 
  return false;
  }
}

4. Override sfGuardAuth config

Save this as 'apps/frontend/modules/sfGuardAuth/validate/signin.yml' (create folders if not already exist in your project).

methods:
  post: [username, password]
 
names:
  username:
  required:         true
  required_msg:     Your username is required
  validators:       [userValidator]
 
password:
  required:         true
  required_msg:     Your password is required
 
userValidator:
  class:            sfGuardUserByEmailValidator
  param:
    password_field: password
    remember_field: remember

5. Execute symfony cc.

That's it for the login mechanism.

What to store in the username column then?

I use up to 10 characters of first name, 3 characters of last name, and a 3-digits random number for usernames.

Use this function to generate unique username for a new user:

private function findUniqueUsername($first_name, $last_name)
{
  srand(time());
  $username = $this->getRequestParameter('first_name').'_'.substr($this->getRequestParameter('last_name'), 0, 1).'_'.rand(1, 1000);
 
  while (sfGuardUserPeer::retrieveByUsername($username))
  {
    $username = $this->getRequestParameter('first_name').'_'.substr($this->getRequestParameter('last_name'), 0, 1).'_'.rand(1, 1000);
  }
 
  return $username;
}

Closing

Phew this is a long article! Please do share with me if you try this on Symfony 1.1 or 1.2.

* Update: This article is for Symfony 1.0, for Symfony 1.2 implementation go to Symfony 1.2, Propel, and sfGuardPlugin: email login

Happy Symfonying!!

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