Laravel 5 authenticate users through external API - php

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 !