# CakePHP Authentication

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[PSR7](https://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-7/) Middleware authentication stack for the CakePHP framework.

Don't know what middleware is? [Check the CakePHP documentation](https://book.cakephp.org/4/en/controllers/middleware.html) and additionally [read this.](https://philsturgeon.uk/php/2016/05/31/why-care-about-php-middleware/)

## Authentication, not Authorization

This plugin intends to provide a framework around authentication and user
identification. Authorization is a [separate
concern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns) that has been
packaged into a separate [authorization plugin](https://github.com/cakephp/authorization).

## Installation

You can install this plugin into your CakePHP application using
[composer](https://getcomposer.org):

```
composer require cakephp/authentication
```

Then load the plugin:
```
bin/cake plugin load Authentication
```

## Documentation

Documentation for this plugin can be found in the [CakePHP Cookbook](https://book.cakephp.org/authentication/3/en/).

## IDE compatibility improvements

There are IdeHelper tasks in [IdeHelperExtra plugin](https://github.com/dereuromark/cakephp-ide-helper-extra/) to provide auto-complete:
- `AuthenticationService::loadAuthenticator()`
- `IdentifierCollection::load()`