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Catalyst::Plugin::AuthUsercContributed PerlCatalyst::Plugin::Authentication(3)

NAME
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication - Infrastructure plugin for the
       Catalyst authentication framework.

SYNOPSIS
	   use Catalyst qw/
	       Authentication
	   /;

	   # later on ...
	   $c->authenticate({ username => 'myusername',
			      password => 'mypassword' });
	   my $age = $c->user->get('age');
	   $c->logout;

DESCRIPTION
       The authentication plugin provides generic user support for Catalyst
       apps. It is the basis for both authentication (checking the user is who
       they claim to be), and authorization (allowing the user to do what the
       system authorises them to do).

       Using authentication is split into two parts. A Store is used to
       actually store the user information, and can store any amount of data
       related to the user. Credentials are used to verify users, using
       information from the store, given data from the frontend. A Credential
       and a Store are paired to form a 'Realm'. A Catalyst application using
       the authentication framework must have at least one realm, and may have
       several.

       To implement authentication in a Catalyst application you need to add
       this module, and specify at least one realm in the configuration.

       Authentication data can also be stored in a session, if the application
       is using the Catalyst::Plugin::Session module.

       NOTE in version 0.10 of this module, the interface to this module
       changed.	 Please see "COMPATIBILITY ROUTINES" for more information.

INTRODUCTION
   The Authentication/Authorization Process
       Web applications typically need to identify a user - to tell the user
       apart from other users. This is usually done in order to display
       private information that is only that user's business, or to limit
       access to the application so that only certain entities can access
       certain parts.

       This process is split up into several steps. First you ask the user to
       identify themselves. At this point you can't be sure that the user is
       really who they claim to be.

       Then the user tells you who they are, and backs this claim with some
       piece of information that only the real user could give you. For
       example, a password is a secret that is known to both the user and you.
       When the user tells you this password you can assume they're in on the
       secret and can be trusted (ignore identity theft for now). Checking the
       password, or any other proof is called credential verification.

       By this time you know exactly who the user is - the user's identity is
       authenticated. This is where this module's job stops, and your
       application or other plugins step in.

       The next logical step is authorization, the process of deciding what a
       user is (or isn't) allowed to do. For example, say your users are split
       into two main groups - regular users and administrators. You want to
       verify that the currently logged in user is indeed an administrator
       before performing the actions in an administrative part of your
       application. These decisions may be made within your application code
       using just the information available after authentication, or it may be
       facilitated by a number of plugins.

   The Components In This Framework
       Realms

       Configuration of the Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication framework is done
       in terms of realms. In simplest terms, a realm is a pairing of a
       Credential verifier and a User storage (Store) backend. As of version
       0.10003, realms are now objects that you can create and customize.

       An application can have any number of Realms, each of which operates
       independent of the others. Each realm has a name, which is used to
       identify it as the target of an authentication request. This name can
       be anything, such as 'users' or 'members'. One realm must be defined as
       the default_realm, which is used when no realm name is specified. More
       information about configuring realms is available in the configuration
       section.

       Credential Verifiers

       When user input is transferred to the Catalyst application (typically
       via form inputs) the application may pass this information into the
       authentication system through the "$c->authenticate()" method.  From
       there, it is passed to the appropriate Credential verifier.

       These plugins check the data, and ensure that it really proves the user
       is who they claim to be.

       Credential verifiers compatible with versions of this module 0.10x and
       upwards should be in the namespace
       "Catalyst::Authentication::Credential".

       Storage Backends

       The authentication data also identifies a user, and the Storage backend
       modules use this data to locate and return a standardized object-
       oriented representation of a user.

       When a user is retrieved from a store it is not necessarily
       authenticated.  Credential verifiers accept a set of authentication
       data and use this information to retrieve the user from the store they
       are paired with.

       Storage backends compatible with versions of this module 0.10x and
       upwards should be in the namespace "Catalyst::Authentication::Store".

       The Core Plugin

       This plugin on its own is the glue, providing realm configuration,
       session integration, and other goodness for the other plugins.

       Other Plugins

       More layers of plugins can be stacked on top of the authentication
       code. For example, Catalyst::Plugin::Session::PerUser provides an
       abstraction of browser sessions that is more persistent per user.
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles provides an accepted way to
       separate and group users into categories, and then check which
       categories the current user belongs to.

EXAMPLE
       Let's say we were storing users in a simple Perl hash. Users are
       verified by supplying a password which is matched within the hash.

       This means that our application will begin like this:

	   package MyApp;

	   use Catalyst qw/
	       Authentication
	   /;

	   __PACKAGE__->config( 'Plugin::Authentication' =>
		       {
			   default => {
			       credential => {
				   class => 'Password',
				   password_field => 'password',
				   password_type => 'clear'
			       },
			       store => {
				   class => 'Minimal',
				   users => {
				       bob => {
					   password => "s00p3r",
					   editor => 'yes',
					   roles => [qw/edit delete/],
				       },
				       william => {
					   password => "s3cr3t",
					   roles => [qw/comment/],
				       }
				   }
			       }
			   }
		       }
	   );

       This tells the authentication plugin what realms are available, which
       credential and store modules are used, and the configuration of each.
       With this code loaded, we can now attempt to authenticate users.

       To show an example of this, let's create an authentication controller:

	   package MyApp::Controller::Auth;

	   sub login : Local {
	       my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

	       if (    my $user	    = $c->req->params->{user}
		   and my $password = $c->req->params->{password} )
	       {
		   if ( $c->authenticate( { username => $user,
					    password => $password } ) ) {
		       $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->get("name") );
		   } else {
		       # login incorrect
		   }
	       }
	       else {
		   # invalid form input
	       }
	   }

       This code should be self-explanatory. If all the necessary fields are
       supplied, call the "authenticate" method on the context object. If it
       succeeds the user is logged in.

       The credential verifier will attempt to retrieve the user whose details
       match the authentication information provided to "$c->authenticate()".
       Once it fetches the user the password is checked and if it matches the
       user will be authenticated and "$c->user" will contain the user object
       retrieved from the store.

       In the above case, the default realm is checked, but we could just as
       easily check an alternate realm. If this were an admin login, for
       example, we could authenticate on the admin realm by simply changing
       the "$c->authenticate()" call:

	   if ( $c->authenticate( { username => $user,
				    password => $password }, 'admin' ) ) {
	       $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->get("name") );
	   } ...

       Now suppose we want to restrict the ability to edit to a user with an
       'editor' value of yes.

       The restricted action might look like this:

	   sub edit : Local {
	       my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

	       $c->detach("unauthorized")
		 unless $c->user_exists
		 and $c->user->get('editor') eq 'yes';

	       # do something restricted here
	   }

       (Note that if you have multiple realms, you can use
       "$c->user_in_realm('realmname')" in place of "$c->user_exists();" This
       will essentially perform the same verification as user_exists, with the
       added requirement that if there is a user, it must have come from the
       realm specified.)

       The above example is somewhat similar to role based access control.
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Minimal treats the roles field as an
       array of role names. Let's leverage this. Add the role authorization
       plugin:

	   use Catalyst qw/
	       ...
	       Authorization::Roles
	   /;

	   sub edit : Local {
	       my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

	       $c->detach("unauthorized") unless $c->check_user_roles("edit");

	       # do something restricted here
	   }

       This is somewhat simpler and will work if you change your store, too,
       since the role interface is consistent.

       Let's say your app grows, and you now have 10,000 users. It's no longer
       efficient to maintain a hash of users, so you move this data to a
       database.  You can accomplish this simply by installing the DBIx::Class
       Store and changing your config:

	   __PACKAGE__->config( 'Plugin::Authentication' =>
			   {
			       default_realm => 'members',
			       members => {
				   credential => {
				       class => 'Password',
				       password_field => 'password',
				       password_type => 'clear'
				   },
				   store => {
				       class => 'DBIx::Class',
				       user_model => 'MyApp::Users',
				       role_column => 'roles',
				   }
			       }
			   }
	   );

       The authentication system works behind the scenes to load your data
       from the new source. The rest of your application is completely
       unchanged.

CONFIGURATION
	   # example
	   __PACKAGE__->config( 'Plugin::Authentication' =>
		       {
			   default_realm => 'members',

			   members => {
			       credential => {
				   class => 'Password',
				   password_field => 'password',
				   password_type => 'clear'
			       },
			       store => {
				   class => 'DBIx::Class',
				   user_model => 'MyApp::Users',
				   role_column => 'roles',
			       }
			   },
			   admins => {
			       credential => {
				   class => 'Password',
				   password_field => 'password',
				   password_type => 'clear'
			       },
			       store => {
				   class => '+MyApp::Authentication::Store::NetAuth',
				   authserver => '192.168.10.17'
			       }
			   }
		       }
	   );

       NOTE: Until version 0.10008 of this module, you would need to put all
       the realms inside a "realms" key in the configuration. Please see
       "COMPATIBILITY CONFIGURATION" for more information

       use_session
	   Whether or not to store the user's logged in state in the session,
	   if the application is also using Catalyst::Plugin::Session. This
	   value is set to true per default.

	   However, even if use_session is disabled, if any code touches
	   $c->session, a session object will be auto-vivified and session
	   Cookies will be sent in the headers. To prevent accidental session
	   creation, check if a session already exists with if ($c->sessionid)
	   { ... }. If the session doesn't exist, then don't place anything in
	   the session to prevent an unecessary session from being created.

       default_realm
	   This defines which realm should be used as when no realm is
	   provided to methods that require a realm such as authenticate or
	   find_user.

       realm refs
	   The Plugin::Authentication config hash contains the series of realm
	   configurations you want to use for your app. The only rule here is
	   that there must be at least one. A realm consists of a name, which
	   is used to reference the realm, a credential and a store.  You may
	   also put your realm configurations within a subelement called
	   'realms' if you desire to separate them from the remainder of your
	   configuration.  Note that if you use a 'realms' subelement, you
	   must put ALL of your realms within it.

	   You can also specify a realm class to instantiate instead of the
	   default Catalyst::Authentication::Realm class using the 'class'
	   element within the realm config.

	   Each realm config contains two hashes, one called 'credential' and
	   one called 'store', each of which provide configuration details to
	   the respective modules.  The contents of these hashes is specific
	   to the module being used, with the exception of the 'class'
	   element, which tells the core Authentication module the classname
	   to instantiate.

	   The 'class' element follows the standard Catalyst mechanism of
	   class specification. If a class is prefixed with a +, it is assumed
	   to be a complete class name. Otherwise it is considered to be a
	   portion of the class name. For credentials, the classname
	   'Password', for example, is expanded to
	   Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Password. For stores, the
	   classname 'storename' is expanded to:
	   Catalyst::Authentication::Store::storename.

METHODS
   $c->authenticate( $userinfo [, $realm ])
       Attempts to authenticate the user using the information in the
       $userinfo hash reference using the realm $realm. $realm may be omitted,
       in which case the default realm is checked.

   $c->user( )
       Returns the currently logged in user, or undef if there is none.
       Normally the user is re-retrieved from the store.  For
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class the user is re-restored
       using the primary key of the user table.	 Thus user can throw an error
       even though user_exists returned true.

   $c->user_exists( )
       Returns true if a user is logged in right now. The difference between
       user_exists and user is that user_exists will return true if a user is
       logged in, even if it has not been yet retrieved from the storage
       backend. If you only need to know if the user is logged in, depending
       on the storage mechanism this can be much more efficient.  user_exists
       only looks into the session while user is trying to restore the user.

   $c->user_in_realm( $realm )
       Works like user_exists, except that it only returns true if a user is
       both logged in right now and was retrieved from the realm provided.

   $c->logout( )
       Logs the user out. Deletes the currently logged in user from "$c->user"
       and the session.	 It does not delete the session.

   $c->find_user( $userinfo, $realm )
       Fetch a particular users details, matching the provided user info, from
       the realm specified in $realm.

	   $user = $c->find_user({ id => $id });
	   $c->set_authenticated($user); # logs the user in and calls persist_user

   persist_user()
       Under normal circumstances the user data is only saved to the session
       during initial authentication.  This call causes the auth system to
       save the currently authenticated user's data across requests.  Useful
       if you have changed the user data and want to ensure that future
       requests reflect the most current data.	Assumes that at the time of
       this call, $c->user contains the most current data.

   find_realm_for_persisted_user()
       Private method, do not call from user code!

INTERNAL METHODS
       These methods are for Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication INTERNAL USE
       only.  Please do not use them in your own code, whether application or
       credential / store modules. If you do, you will very likely get the
       nasty shock of having to fix / rewrite your code when things change.
       They are documented here only for reference.

   $c->set_authenticated( $user, $realmname )
       Marks a user as authenticated. This is called from within the
       authenticate routine when a credential returns a user. $realmname
       defaults to 'default'.  You can use find_user to get $user

   $c->auth_restore_user( $user, $realmname )
       Used to restore a user from the session. In most cases this is called
       without arguments to restore the user via the session. Can be called
       with arguments when restoring a user from some other method.  Currently
       not used in this way.

   $c->auth_realms( )
       Returns a hashref containing realmname -> realm instance pairs. Realm
       instances contain an instantiated store and credential object as the
       'store' and 'credential' elements, respectively

   $c->get_auth_realm( $realmname )
       Retrieves the realm instance for the realmname provided.

   $c->update_user_in_session
       This was a short-lived method to update user information - you should
       use persist_user instead.

   $c->setup_auth_realm( )
OVERRIDDEN METHODS
   $c->setup( )
SEE ALSO
       This list might not be up to date.  Below are modules known to work
       with the updated API of 0.10 and are therefore compatible with realms.

   Realms
       Catalyst::Authentication::Realm

   User Storage Backends
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Minimal
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::LDAP
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::RDBO
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Model::KiokuDB
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Jifty::DBI
       Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Htpasswd

   Credential verification
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Password
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::HTTP
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::OpenID
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Authen::Simple
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Flickr
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Testing
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::AuthTkt
       Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Kerberos

   Authorization
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::ACL,
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles

   Internals Documentation
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Internals

   Misc
       Catalyst::Plugin::Session, Catalyst::Plugin::Session::PerUser

DON'T SEE ALSO
       This module along with its sub plugins deprecate a great number of
       other modules. These include Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Simple,
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::CDBI.

INCOMPATABILITIES
       The realms-based configuration and functionality of the 0.10 update of
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication required a change in the API used by
       credentials and stores.	It has a compatibility mode which allows use
       of modules that have not yet been updated. This, however, completely
       mimics the older api and disables the new realm-based features. In
       other words you cannot mix the older credential and store modules with
       realms, or realm-based configs. The changes required to update modules
       are relatively minor and are covered in
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Internals.  We hope that most modules
       will move to the compatible list above very quickly.

COMPATIBILITY CONFIGURATION
       Until version 0.10008 of this module, you needed to put all the realms
       inside a "realms" key in the configuration.

	   # example
	   __PACKAGE__->config( 'Plugin::Authentication' =>
		       {
			   default_realm => 'members',
			   realms => {
			       members => {
				   ...
			       },
			   },
		       }
	   );

       If you use the old, deprecated "__PACKAGE__->config( 'authentication'
       )" configuration key, then the realms key is still required.

COMPATIBILITY ROUTINES
       In version 0.10 of Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication, the API changed.
       For app developers, this change is fairly minor, but for Credential and
       Store authors, the changes are significant.

       Please see the documentation in version 0.09 of
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication for a better understanding of how the
       old API functioned.

       The items below are still present in the plugin, though using them is
       deprecated. They remain only as a transition tool, for those sites
       which can not yet be upgraded to use the new system due to local
       customizations or use of Credential / Store modules that have not yet
       been updated to work with the new API.

       These routines should not be used in any application using realms
       functionality or any of the methods described above. These are for
       reference purposes only.

   $c->login( )
       This method is used to initiate authentication and user retrieval.
       Technically this is part of the old Password credential module and it
       still resides in the Password class. It is included here for reference
       only.

   $c->default_auth_store( )
       Return the store whose name is 'default'.

       This is set to "$c->config( 'Plugin::Authentication' => { store => #
       Store} )" if that value exists, or by using a Store plugin:

	   # load the Minimal authentication store.
	   use Catalyst qw/Authentication Authentication::Store::Minimal/;

       Sets the default store to
       Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store::Minimal.

   $c->get_auth_store( $name )
       Return the store whose name is $name.

   $c->get_auth_store_name( $store )
       Return the name of the store $store.

   $c->auth_stores( )
       A hash keyed by name, with the stores registered in the app.

   $c->register_auth_stores( %stores_by_name )
       Register stores into the application.

   $c->auth_store_names( )
   $c->get_user( )
AUTHORS
       Yuval Kogman, "nothingmuch@woobling.org"

       Jay Kuri, "jayk@cpan.org"

       Jess Robinson

       David Kamholz

       Tomas Doran (t0m), "bobtfish@bobtfish.net"

       kmx

       Nigel Metheringham

       Florian Ragwitz "rafl@debian.org"

       Stephan Jauernick "stephanj@cpan.org"

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
       Copyright (c) 2005 - 2009 the Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
       "AUTHORS" as listed above.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.14.1			  2011-01-2Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication(3)
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