This chapter explains how to set up authentication on a CakePHP application, starting from the most basic setup and finishing with advanced authorization mechanisms. This is accomplished through the use of tools that are built into the framework core, which allow us to quickly set up secure areas without losing flexibility to build more complex solutions.

The first two recipes show us how to set up a basic, yet fully working authentication system. The next three recipes allow our users to log in using different information, have their user details saved after a successful login, and show us how to get this user information. The sixth recipe shows a more complex authorization technique that relies on route prefixes. The seventh recipe sets up a complex authentication system through the use of CakePHP's Access Control Layer. Finally, the last recipe shows us how to integrate our application with OpenID.