Simplifying Passwordless Login with Laravel
Imagine a world where users don’t have to remember complex passwords or worry about password leaks. With passwordless login, users can simply enter their email address, receive a unique link, and click to log in. In this article, we’ll explore how to implement passwordless login using a standard Laravel installation.
Getting Started
First, let’s create a new Laravel 8 application and set up our database credentials. We’ll also configure our mail driver to preview our login emails.
The Technical Approach
To implement passwordless login, we need to generate a unique token for each user, associate it with their account, and validate it when they click the link. We’ll store these tokens in a separate table and keep track of whether they’ve been used or expired.
Creating the Login Flow
We’ll start by creating a test user and a login route that sends a unique link to their email address. When they click the link, we’ll validate the token and log them in.
Implementing the sendLoginLink Function
Next, we’ll update our User model to generate a unique token and send it to the user via email. We’ll use Laravel’s built-in mailer class to compose the email and a temporary signed URL to ensure the link hasn’t been tampered with.
The Verification Route
When the user clicks the link, we’ll validate the token and log them in. We’ll also mark the token as used so it can’t be used again.
Final Touches
Finally, we’ll guard our root route to only be viewable by logged-in users and add a way to log out. We’ll also update our welcome view to show information about the logged-in user and provide a link to log out.
With these steps, we’ve successfully implemented passwordless login using Laravel. The full source code is available for reference.