readme.md

Auto Login v2.2

A CakePHP Component that will automatically login the Auth session for a duration if the user requested to (saves data to cookies).

Requirements

• CakePHP 1.2.x, 1.3.x
• PHP 5.2.x, 5.3.x
• Auth, Cookie Component

Features

• Requires no installation except for adding the checkbox into your user login forms
• Automatically saves the cookie and info when a user logs in
• Automatically kills the cookie and session when a user logs out
• Inserts a hash within the cookie so that it cannot be hijacked
• Encrypts the cookie so the information cannot be harvested
• Configuration options for cookie name and length
• Functionality for additional user updating or error logging

Documentation

Begin by placing the component in your controllers/components/ directory and then adding it to your AppController.

public $components = array('Auth', 'Cookie', 'AutoLogin');

Add a checkbox to your login form to indicate the "remember me" functionality.

echo $this->Form->input('auto_login', array('type' => 'checkbox', 'label' => 'Remember Me?'));

Customize the settings of the component to match your application.

public function beforeFilter() {
	$this->AutoLogin->cookieName = 'rememberMe';
	$this->AutoLogin->expires = '+1 month';
	$this->AutoLogin->settings = array(
		'controller' => 'Members',
		'loginAction' => 'signin',
		'logoutAction' => 'signout'
	);
}

Lastly, the component allows you to define a method to be triggered after every successful login. This method could be used to initialize the users session, update the users last login in time, etc, etc. All you need to do is add a method called _autoLogin() to your AppController.

public function _autoLogin($user) {
	// $user contains the Auth session
}

Debugging

It can be quite difficult to debug this component if something is not working, simply because this component is automatically ran on each page load and during the login process. You can enable an internal debug system that will email you cookie and user information at specific events so that you may figure out which step the script is dieing on. The debug settings take an email (where the debug will be sent) and an array of IPs (emails will only be sent if you are browsing with these IPs). To use the debug, simply set it in bootstrap.php.

Configure::write('AutoLogin', array(
	'email' => 'email@domain.com',
	'ips' => array('127.0.0.1')
));

Additionally, you can restrict the scope in which the debug emails are delivered. The following scopes are available: login, loginFail, loginCallback, logout, logoutCallback, cookieSet, cookieFail, hashFail, custom (for you to trigger manually).

Configure::write('AutoLogin.scope', array('login', 'logout'));