How to Build a JSON Authentication Endpoint =========================================== In this entry, you'll build a JSON endpoint to log in your users. When the user logs in, you can load your users from anywhere - like the database. See :ref:`security-user-providers` for details. First, enable the JSON login under your firewall: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... firewalls: main: anonymous: lazy json_login: check_path: /login .. code-block:: xml .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ 'firewalls' => [ 'main' => [ 'anonymous' => 'lazy', 'json_login' => [ 'check_path' => '/login', ], ], ], ]); .. tip:: The ``check_path`` can also be a route name (but cannot have mandatory wildcards - e.g. ``/login/{foo}`` where ``foo`` has no default value). The next step is to configure a route in your app matching this path: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/SecurityController.php // ... use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class SecurityController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/login", name="login", methods={"POST"}) */ public function login(Request $request) { $user = $this->getUser(); return $this->json([ 'username' => $user->getUsername(), 'roles' => $user->getRoles(), ]); } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml login: path: /login controller: App\Controller\SecurityController::login methods: POST .. code-block:: xml .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\SecurityController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('login', '/login') ->controller([SecurityController::class, 'login']) ->methods(['POST']) ; }; Now, when you make a ``POST`` request, with the header ``Content-Type: application/json``, to the ``/login`` URL with the following JSON document as the body, the security system intercepts the request and initiates the authentication process: .. code-block:: json { "username": "dunglas", "password": "MyPassword" } Symfony takes care of authenticating the user with the submitted username and password or triggers an error in case the authentication process fails. If the authentication is successful, the controller defined earlier will be executed. If the JSON document has a different structure, you can specify the path to access the ``username`` and ``password`` properties using the ``username_path`` and ``password_path`` keys (they default respectively to ``username`` and ``password``). For example, if the JSON document has the following structure: .. code-block:: json { "security": { "credentials": { "login": "dunglas", "password": "MyPassword" } } } The security configuration should be: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... firewalls: main: anonymous: lazy json_login: check_path: login username_path: security.credentials.login password_path: security.credentials.password .. code-block:: xml .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ 'firewalls' => [ 'main' => [ 'anonymous' => 'lazy', 'json_login' => [ 'check_path' => 'login', 'username_path' => 'security.credentials.login', 'password_path' => 'security.credentials.password', ], ], ], ]);