[Catalyst] How to do pass-through login?

[Zbigniew Lukasiak]

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:03 AM, Gunnar Strand<gunnarstrand at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am looking for a way to send users to the login screen if they are
> trying to access a restricted path, and if the login is valid, the
> original request should just continue like this:
>
> 1. myapp <- GET /member/only
> 2. myapp -> /login_form
> 3. myapp <- POST /login
> 4. myapp -> /member/only
>
> I guess this is what is called "pass-through login (and other actions)"
> in the Cookbook, but I can't understand the description:
>
> "Provide actions for these, but when they're required for something else
> fill e.g. a form variable __login and have a sub begin like so:"
>
>    sub begin : Private {
>      my ($self, $c) = @_;
>      foreach my $action (qw/login docommand foo bar whatever/) {
>        if ($c->req->params->{"__${action}"}) {
>          $c->forward($action);
>        }
>      }
>    }
>
>
> Where is the data from the original request stored? Is everything stored
> in the "__$action" key including any values in a form submission?
>
> An example on how pass-through works would be very helpful.
>
> I would have expected something like this (pseudo-code):
>
> In "begin" for /member/only:
> unless ( $c -> user_exists() ) {
>  $c -> delay_action();       # Saves state in Flash or Session
>  $c -> forward('/login_form');
> }
>
> In "login" after authentication:
> if ( $c -> restore_action() ) {
>  $c -> continue_action();
> }

There is Catalyst::Helper::Auth that generates such a passthrough
login component, but it is rather buggy.  You can have a look at mine
ProtoWiki code at:
http://github.com/zby/CatalystX--ProtoWiki/blob/237284a35f5fd65e3d32cb5f88b81c28a47250e9/lib/CatalystX/ProtoWiki/Controller/Auth.pm
- it is copied from the code generated by Catalyst::Helper::Auth - and
then a bit modified/fixed, but it still needs a lot of work. It
redirects to an 'url' not action - so in theory it should retain
parameters etc. - but I am not sure if they are correctly encoded now.


-- 
Zbigniew Lukasiak
http://brudnopis.blogspot.com/
http://perlalchemy.blogspot.com/