How to Change the default Target Path Behavior

By default, the Security component retains the information of the last request URI in a session variable named _security.main.target_path (with main being the name of the firewall, defined in security.yml). Upon a successful login, the user is redirected to this path, as to help them continue from the last known page they visited.

In some situations, this is not ideal. For example, when the last request URI was an XMLHttpRequest which returned a non-HTML or partial HTML response, the user is redirected back to a page which the browser cannot render.

To get around this behavior, you would simply need to extend the ExceptionListener class and override the default method named setTargetPath().

First, override the security.exception_listener.class parameter in your configuration file. This can be done from your main configuration file (in app/config) or from a configuration file being imported from a bundle:

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# app/config/services.yml
parameters:
    # ...
    security.exception_listener.class: AppBundle\Security\Firewall\ExceptionListener

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<!-- app/config/services.xml -->
<parameters>
    <!-- ... -->
    <parameter key="security.exception_listener.class">AppBundle\Security\Firewall\ExceptionListener</parameter>
</parameters>

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// app/config/services.php
// ...
$container->setParameter('security.exception_listener.class', 'AppBundle\Security\Firewall\ExceptionListener');

Next, create your own ExceptionListener:

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// src/AppBundle/Security/Firewall/ExceptionListener.php
namespace AppBundle\Security\Firewall;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Firewall\ExceptionListener as BaseExceptionListener;

class ExceptionListener extends BaseExceptionListener
{
    protected function setTargetPath(Request $request)
    {
        // Do not save target path for XHR requests
        // You can add any more logic here you want
        // Note that non-GET requests are already ignored
        if ($request->isXmlHttpRequest()) {
            return;
        }

        parent::setTargetPath($request);
    }
}

Add as much or as little logic here as required for your scenario!