Zend Force Login

Question

I have my shell application working and I now want to ensure that a user is logged in before anything else occurs. I have a working auth controller and associated database tables, etc.

I assumed that the best ay to do this was to put the identity test in the bootstrap, as I don't want to check for identity in each controller. Basically, I think I want to put code in the bootstrap that says if identity, then run the index otherwise, run auth. Is this the best way to do it in Zend? If not, what is the preferred method?

I was thinking Bootstrap because for every request of any type, I don't want to allow it if the user is logged in and of course, it would be best to chave this check only in ne place.

Answer 1

I have more commonly seen this in done via a plugin. These can be done at various stages of the Zend Application dispatch cycle. The most common set up I have encountered would be to put a check user login status plugin in at preDispatch.

Search the Zend documentation for preDispatch plugins, or have a look on Youtube as there are some good video tutorials that walk you through it.

An advantage to doing this is that in the future you may want to run some kind of functionality prior to the user authentication test. In such an instance you could put new functionality in a dispatchLoopStartup plugin.

Having said this, there is nothing really wrong with checking the user login status in the bootstrap - I have seen this done many times. It is possibly just tidier to user plugins as they are more repeatable in new applications.

This is just my opinion of course, but I hope this helps.