CakePHP Authentication Plugin Identity Associations

Question

I'm using CakePHP 3.8 and migrating to the Authentication Plugin (https://book.cakephp.org/authentication/1.1/en/index.html).

When calling $this->Authentication->getIdentity()->getOriginalData() in a controller, I'd like to access a couple of assocations of my User entity.

At the moment, I'm doing this by implementing the following IdentityInterface method in my User entity:

public function getOriginalData() {
  $table = TableRegistry::getTableLocator()->get($this->getSource());
  $table->loadInto($this, ['Activities', 'Clients']);
  return $this;
}

But I feel there should be a contain parameter somewhere within the Plugin configuration (as there was with the AuthComponent).

Can anyone guide me on how to include assocations on the User entity when calling getIdentity()?

Answer 1

The contain option of the authentication objects for the old Auth component has been deprecated quite some time ago, and the recommended method is to use a custom finder, and that's also how it's done in the new authentication plugin.

The ORM resolver takes a finder option, and it has to be configured via the used identifier, which in your case is probably the password identifier, ie something like:

$service->loadIdentifier('Authentication.Password', [
    // ...
    'resolver' => [
        'className' => 'Authentication.Orm',
        'finder' => 'authenticatedUser' // <<< there it goes
    ],
]);

In the finder method in your table class (probably UsersTable) you can then contain whatever you need:

public function findAuthenticatedUser(\Cake\ORM\Query $query, array $options)
{
    return $query->contain(['Activities', 'Clients']);
}

See also

• Cookbook > Controllers > Components > AuthComponent > Customizing The Find Query
• Cookbook > Database Access & ORM > Retrieving Data & Results Sets > Custom Finder Methods
• Authentication Cookbook > Identifiers
• Authentication Cookbook > Identifiers > ORM Resolver