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  4. How to Load Security Users from the Database (the Entity Provider)
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How to Load Security Users from the Database (the Entity Provider)

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How to Load Security Users from the Database (the Entity Provider)

Each User class in your app will usually need its own user provider. If you’re loading users from the database, you can use the built-in entity provider:

  • YAML
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    # config/packages/security.yaml
    # ...

    providers:
        our_db_provider:
            entity:
                class: App\Entity\User
                # the property to query by - e.g. username, email, etc
                property: username
                # if you're using multiple entity managers
                # manager_name: customer

    # ...
  • XML
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    <!-- config/packages/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="our_db_provider">
            <!-- if you're using multiple entity managers, add:
                 manager-name="customer" -->
            <entity class="App\Entity\User" property="username" />
        </provider>

        <!-- ... -->
    </config>
</srv:container>
  • PHP
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    // config/packages/security.php
use App\Entity\User;

$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
    'providers' => [
        'our_db_provider' => [
            'entity' => [
                'class'    => User::class,
                'property' => 'username',
            ],
        ],
    ],

    // ...
]);

The providers section creates a “user provider” called our_db_provider that knows to query from your App\Entity\User entity by the username property. The name our_db_provider isn’t important: it’s not used, unless you have multiple user providers and need to specify which user provider to use via the provider key under your firewall.

Using a Custom Query to Load the User

The entity provider can only query from one specific field, specified by the property config key. If you want a bit more control over this - e.g. you want to find a user by email or username, you can do that by making your UserRepository implement a special Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Security\User\UserLoaderInterface. This interface only requires one method: loadUserByUsername($username):

// src/Repository/UserRepository.php
namespace App\Repository;

use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Security\User\UserLoaderInterface;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;

class UserRepository extends EntityRepository implements UserLoaderInterface
{
    public function loadUserByUsername($username)
    {
        return $this->createQueryBuilder('u')
            ->where('u.username = :username OR u.email = :email')
            ->setParameter('username', $username)
            ->setParameter('email', $username)
            ->getQuery()
            ->getOneOrNullResult();
    }
}

To finish this, remove the property key from the user provider in security.yaml:

  • YAML
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    # config/packages/security.yaml
security:
    # ...

    providers:
        our_db_provider:
            entity:
                class: App\Entity\User
  • XML
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    <!-- config/packages/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="our_db_provider">
            <entity class="App\Entity\User" />
        </provider>
    </config>
</srv:container>
  • PHP
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    // config/packages/security.php
use App\Entity\User;

$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
    // ...

    'providers' => [
        'our_db_provider' => [
            'entity' => [
                'class' => User::class,
            ],
        ],
    ],
]);

This tells Symfony to not query automatically for the User. Instead, when needed (e.g. because switch_user, remember_me or some other security feature is activated), the loadUserByUsername() method on UserRepository will be called.

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