NAME
    Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class - A storage class for
    Catalyst Authentication using DBIx::Class

VERSION
    This documentation refers to version 0.108.

SYNOPSIS
        use Catalyst qw/
                        Authentication
                        Authorization::Roles/;

        __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication} = 
                        {  
                            default_realm => 'members',
                            realms => {
                                members => {
                                    credential => {
                                        class => 'Password',
                                        password_field => 'password',
                                        password_type => 'clear'
                                    },
                                    store => {
                                        class => 'DBIx::Class',
                                        user_model => 'MyApp::User',
                                        role_relation => 'roles',
                                        role_field => 'rolename',                   
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        };

        # Log a user in:
        
    sub login : Global {
            my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
            
        $c->authenticate({  
                              screen_name => $c->req->params->username,
                              password => $c->req->params->password,
                              status => [ 'registered', 'loggedin', 'active']
                              }))
        }
        
    # verify a role 
        
    if ( $c->check_user_roles( 'editor' ) ) {
            # do editor stuff
        }

DESCRIPTION
    The Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class class provides access
    to authentication information stored in a database via DBIx::Class.

CONFIGURATION
    The DBIx::Class authentication store is activated by setting the store
    config's class element to DBIx::Class as shown above. See the
    Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication documentation for more details on
    configuring the store. You can also use
    Catalyst::Authentication::Realm::SimpleDB for a simplified setup.

    The DBIx::Class storage module has several configuration options

        __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication} = 
                        {  
                            default_realm => 'members',
                            realms => {
                                members => {
                                    credential => {
                                        # ...
                                    },
                                    store => {
                                        class => 'DBIx::Class',
                                        user_model => 'MyApp::User',
                                        role_relation => 'roles',
                                        role_field => 'rolename',
                                        ignore_fields_in_find => [ 'remote_name' ],
                                        use_userdata_from_session => 1,          
                                    }
                                    }
                            }
                        };

    class
        Class is part of the core Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication module;
        it contains the class name of the store to be used.

    user_model
        Contains the model name (as passed to $c->model()) of the
        DBIx::Class schema to use as the source for user information. This
        config item is REQUIRED.

        (Note that this option used to be called "user_class". "user_class"
        is still functional, but should be used only for compatibility with
        previous configs. The setting called "user_class" on other
        authentication stores is present, but named "store_user_class" in
        this store)

    role_column
        If your role information is stored in the same table as the rest of
        your user information, this item tells the module which field
        contains your role information. The DBIx::Class authentication store
        expects the data in this field to be a series of role names
        separated by some combination of spaces, commas, or pipe characters.

    role_relation
        If your role information is stored in a separate table, this is the
        name of the relation that will lead to the roles the user is in. If
        this is specified, then a role_field is also required. Also when
        using this method it is expected that your role table will return
        one row for each role the user is in.

    role_field
        This is the name of the field in the role table that contains the
        string identifying the role.

    ignore_fields_in_find
        This item is an array containing fields that may be passed to the
        $c->authenticate() routine (and therefore find_user in the storage
        class), but which should be ignored when creating the DBIx::Class
        search to retrieve a user. This makes it possible to avoid problems
        when a credential requires an authinfo element whose name overlaps
        with a column name in your users table. If this doesn't make sense
        to you, you probably don't need it.

    use_userdata_from_session
        Under normal circumstances, on each request the user's data is
        re-retrieved from the database using the primary key for the user
        table. When this flag is set in the configuration, it causes the
        DBIx::Class store to avoid this database hit on session restore.
        Instead, the user object's column data is retrieved from the session
        and used as-is.

        NOTE: Since the user object's column data is only stored in the
        session during the initial authentication of the user, turning this
        on can potentially lead to a situation where the data in $c->user is
        different from what is stored the database. You can force a reload
        of the data from the database at any time by calling
        $c->user->get_object(1); Note that this will update $c->user for the
        remainder of this request. It will NOT update the session. If you
        need to update the session you should call
        $c->update_user_in_session() as well.

    store_user_class
        This allows you to override the authentication user class that the
        DBIx::Class store module uses to perform its work. Most of the work
        done in this module is actually done by the user class,
        Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class::User, so overriding
        this doesn't make much sense unless you are using your own class to
        extend the functionality of the existing class. Chances are you do
        not want to set this.

    id_field
        In most cases, this config variable does not need to be set, as
        Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class will determine the
        primary key of the user table on its own. If you need to override
        the default, or your user table has multiple primary keys, then
        id_field should contain the column name that should be used to
        restore the user. A given value in this column should correspond to
        a single user in the database. Note that this is used ONLY when
        restoring a user from the session and has no bearing whatsoever in
        the initial authentication process. Note also that if
        use_userdata_from_session is enabled, this config parameter is not
        used at all.

USAGE
    The Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class storage module is not
    called directly from application code. You interface with it through the
    $c->authenticate() call.

    There are three methods you can use to retrieve information from the
    DBIx::Class storage module. They are Simple retrieval, and the advanced
    retrieval methods Searchargs and Resultset.

  Simple Retrieval
    The first, and most common, method is simple retrieval. As its name
    implies simple retrieval allows you to simply to provide the column =>
    value pairs that should be used to locate the user in question. An
    example of this usage is below:

        if ($c->authenticate({  
                              screen_name => $c->req->params->{'username'},
                              password => $c->req->params->{'password'},
                              status => [ 'registered', 'active', 'loggedin']
                             })) {

            # ... authenticated user code here
        }

    The above example would attempt to retrieve a user whose username column
    (here, screen_name) matched the username provided, and whose status
    column matched one of the values provided. These name => value pairs are
    used more or less directly in the DBIx::Class search() routine, so in
    most cases, you can use DBIx::Class syntax to retrieve the user
    according to whatever rules you have.

    NOTE: Because the password in most cases is encrypted - it is not used
    directly but its encryption and comparison with the value provided is
    usually handled by the Password Credential. Part of the Password
    Credential's behavior is to remove the password argument from the
    authinfo that is passed to the storage module. See
    Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Password.

    One thing you need to know about this retrieval method is that the name
    portion of the pair is checked against the user class's column list.
    Pairs are only used if a matching column is found. Other pairs will be
    ignored. This means that you can only provide simple name-value pairs,
    and that some more advanced DBIx::Class constructs, such as '-or',
    '-and', etc. are in most cases not possible using this method. For
    queries that require this level of functionality, see the 'searchargs'
    method below.

  Advanced Retrieval
    The Searchargs and Resultset retrieval methods are used when more
    advanced features of the underlying DBIx::Class schema are required.
    These methods provide a direct interface with the DBIx::Class schema and
    therefore require a better understanding of the DBIx::Class module.

   The dbix_class key
    Since the format of these arguments are often complex, they are not keys
    in the base authinfo hash. Instead, both of these arguments are placed
    within a hash attached to the store-specific 'dbix_class' key in the
    base $authinfo hash. When the DBIx::Class authentication store sees the
    'dbix_class' key in the passed authinfo hash, all the other information
    in the authinfo hash is ignored and only the values within the
    'dbix_class' hash are used as though they were passed directly within
    the authinfo hash. In other words, if 'dbix_class' is present, it
    replaces the authinfo hash for processing purposes.

    The 'dbix_class' hash can be used to directly pass arguments to the
    DBIx::Class authentication store. Reasons to do this are to avoid
    credential modification of the authinfo hash, or to avoid overlap
    between credential and store key names. It's a good idea to avoid using
    it in this way unless you are sure you have an overlap/modification
    issue. However, the two advanced retrieval methods, searchargs and
    resultset, require its use, as they are only processed as part of the
    'dbix_class' hash.

    Searchargs
        The searchargs method of retrieval allows you to specify an arrayref
        containing the two arguments to the search() method from
        DBIx::Class::ResultSet. If provided, all other args are ignored, and
        the search args provided are used directly to locate the user. An
        example will probably make more sense:

            if ($c->authenticate(
                { 
                    password => $password,
                    'dbix_class' => 
                        {
                            searchargs => [ { -or => [ username => $username,
                                                      email => $email,
                                                      clientid => $clientid ] 
                                           },
                                           { prefetch => qw/ preferences / } 
                                         ]
                        }
                } ) ) 
            {
                # do successful authentication actions here.
            }

        The above would allow authentication based on any of the three items
        - username, email, or clientid - and would prefetch the data related
        to that user from the preferences table. The searchargs array is
        passed directly to the search() method associated with the
        user_model.

    Resultset
        The resultset method of retrieval allows you to directly specify a
        resultset to be used for user retrieval. This allows you to create a
        resultset within your login action and use it for retrieving the
        user. A simple example:

            my $rs = $c->model('MyApp::User')->search({ email => $c->request->params->{'email'} });
               ... # further $rs adjustments
               
    if ($c->authenticate({ 
                                   password => $password,
                                   'dbix_class' => { resultset => $rs }
                                 })) {
               # do successful authentication actions here.
            }

        Be aware that the resultset method will not verify that you are
        passing a resultset that is attached to the same user_model as
        specified in the config.

        NOTE: All of these methods of user retrieval, including the
        resultset method, consider the first row returned to be the matching
        user. In most cases there will be only one matching row, but it is
        easy to produce multiple rows, especially when using the advanced
        retrieval methods. Remember, what you get when you use this module
        is what you would get when calling search(...)->first;

        NOTE ALSO: The user info used to save the user to the session and to
        retrieve it is the same regardless of what method of retrieval was
        used. In short, the value in the id field (see 'id_field' config
        item) is used to retrieve the user from the database upon restoring
        from the session. When the DBIx::Class storage module does this, it
        does so by doing a simple search using the id field. In other words,
        it will not use the same arguments you used to request the user
        initially. This is especially important to those using the advanced
        methods of user retrieval. If you need more complicated logic when
        reviving the user from the session, you will most likely want to
        subclass the Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class::User
        class and provide your own for_session and from_session routines.

METHODS
    There are no publicly exported routines in the DBIx::Class
    authentication store (or indeed in most authentication stores). However,
    below is a description of the routines required by
    Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication for all authentication stores. Please
    see the documentation for Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Internals
    for more information.

  new ( $config, $app )
    Constructs a new store object.

  find_user ( $authinfo, $c )
    Finds a user using the information provided in the $authinfo hashref and
    returns the user, or undef on failure. This is usually called from the
    Credential. This translates directly to a call to
    Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIx::Class::User's load() method.

  for_session ( $c, $user )
    Prepares a user to be stored in the session. Currently returns the value
    of the user's id field (as indicated by the 'id_field' config element)

  from_session ( $c, $frozenuser)
    Revives a user from the session based on the info provided in
    $frozenuser. Currently treats $frozenuser as an id and retrieves a user
    with a matching id.

  user_supports
    Provides information about what the user object supports.

  auto_update_user( $authinfo, $c, $res )
    This method is called if the realm's auto_update_user setting is true.
    It will delegate to the user object's "auto_update" method.

  auto_create_user( $authinfo, $c )
    This method is called if the realm's auto_create_user setting is true.
    It will delegate to the user class's (resultset) "auto_create" method.

NOTES
    As of the current release, session storage consists of simply storing
    the user's id in the session, and then using that same id to re-retrieve
    the user's information from the database upon restoration from the
    session. More dynamic storage of user information in the session is
    intended for a future release.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
    None known currently; please email the author if you find any.

SEE ALSO
    Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication,
    Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Internals, and
    Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles

AUTHOR
    Jason Kuri (jayk@cpan.org)

LICENSE
    Copyright (c) 2007 the aforementioned authors. All rights reserved. This
    program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
    the same terms as Perl itself.

