How to Use multiple User Providers

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Note

It's always better to use a specific user provider for each authentication mechanism. Chaining user providers should be avoided in most applications and used only to solve edge cases.

Each authentication mechanism (e.g. HTTP Authentication, form login, etc) uses exactly one user provider, and will use the first declared user provider by default. But what if you want to specify a few users via configuration and the rest of your users in the database? This is possible by creating a new provider that chains the two together:

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        # app/config/security.yml
security:
    providers:
        chain_provider:
            chain:
                providers: [in_memory, user_db]
        in_memory:
            memory:
                users:
                    foo: { password: test }
        user_db:
            entity: { class: AppBundle\Entity\User, property: username }
    

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        <!-- app/config/security.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

    <config>
        <provider name="chain_provider">
            <chain>
                <provider>in_memory</provider>
                <provider>user_db</provider>
            </chain>
        </provider>

        <provider name="in_memory">
            <memory>
                <user name="foo" password="test" />
            </memory>
        </provider>

        <provider name="user_db">
            <entity class="AppBundle\Entity\User" property="username" />
        </provider>
    </config>
</srv:container>
    

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        // app/config/security.php
use AppBundle\Entity\User;

$container->loadFromExtension('security', array(
    'providers' => array(
        'chain_provider' => array(
            'chain' => array(
                'providers' => array('in_memory', 'user_db'),
            ),
        ),
        'in_memory' => array(
            'memory' => array(
               'users' => array(
                   'foo' => array('password' => 'test'),
               ),
            ),
        ),
        'user_db' => array(
            'entity' => array(
                'class'    => User::class,
                'property' => 'username',
            ),
        ),
    ),
));
    

Now, all firewalls without an explicitly configured user provider will use the chain_provider since it's the first specified. The chain_provider will, in turn, try to load the user from both the in_memory and user_db providers.

You can also configure the firewall or individual authentication mechanisms to use a specific provider. Again, unless a provider is specified explicitly, the first provider is always used:

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        # app/config/security.yml
security:
    firewalls:
        secured_area:
            # ...
            pattern: ^/
            provider: user_db
            http_basic:
                realm: 'Secured Demo Area'
                provider: in_memory
            form_login: ~
    

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        <!-- app/config/security.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

    <config>
        <firewall name="secured_area" pattern="^/" provider="user_db">
            <!-- ... -->
            <http-basic realm="Secured Demo Area" provider="in_memory" />
            <form-login />
        </firewall>
    </config>
</srv:container>
    

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        // app/config/security.php
$container->loadFromExtension('security', array(
    'firewalls' => array(
        'secured_area' => array(
            // ...
            'pattern' => '^/',
            'provider' => 'user_db',
            'http_basic' => array(
                // ...
                'realm' => 'Secured Demo Area',
                'provider' => 'in_memory',
            ),
            'form_login' => array(),
        ),
    ),
));
    

In this example, if a user tries to log in via HTTP authentication, the authentication system will use the in_memory user provider. But if the user tries to log in via the form login, the user_db provider will be used (since it's the default for the firewall as a whole).

If you need to check that the user being returned by your provider is a allowed to authenticate, check the returned user object:

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        use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User;
// ...

public function loadUserByUsername($username)
{
    // ...

    // you can, for example, test that the returned user is an object of a
    // particular class or check for certain attributes of your user objects
    if ($user instance User) {
        // the user was loaded from the main security config file. Do something.
        // ...
    }

    return $user;
}
    

For more information about user provider and firewall configuration, see the Security Configuration Reference (SecurityBundle).

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.

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