Multi user authentication system in Laravel 11

To create a multi-user authentication system in Laravel 11 with multiple guards, you'll need to follow these steps:

1. Define the guards in your config/auth.php file.
2. Create the necessary controllers for each type of user.
3. Set up the middleware to redirect unauthenticated users to the correct login page.
4. Create the authentication routes for each guard.
5. Set up the views for each login page.

Here's a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Define Guards

In your config/auth.php, define the guards for your different user types. For example, if you have admin and user, you might have:

'guards' => [
    'web' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'users',
    ],

    'admin' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'admins',
    ],

    // ...
],

'providers' => [
    'users' => [
        'driver' => 'eloquent',
        'model' => App\Models\User::class,
    ],

    'admins' => [
        'driver' => 'eloquent',
        'model' => App\Models\Admin::class,
    ],

    // ...
],

Step 2: Create Controllers

Create controllers for each type of user. For example, AdminAuthController and UserAuthController. In each controller, you'll handle the login and logout functionality for that guard.

Step 3: Middleware for Redirects

You may need to create middleware that checks if a user is authenticated with a specific guard and redirects them to the correct login page if they are not. Here's an example middleware for an admin guard:

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class RedirectIfNotAdmin
{
    public function handle($request, Closure $next, $guard = 'admin')
    {
        if (!Auth::guard($guard)->check()) {
            return redirect('/admin/login');
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

Register this middleware in your app/Http/Kernel.php.

Step 4: Authentication Routes

Define routes for each type of user. For example:

// User authentication routes
Route::get('login', 'UserAuthController@showLoginForm')->name('login');
Route::post('login', 'UserAuthController@login');
Route::post('logout', 'UserAuthController@logout')->name('logout');

// Admin authentication routes
Route::prefix('admin')->name('admin.')->group(function () {
    Route::get('login', 'AdminAuthController@showLoginForm')->name('login');
    Route::post('login', 'AdminAuthController@login');
    Route::post('logout', 'AdminAuthController@logout')->name('logout');
});

Step 5: Create Views

Create separate login views for each type of user. For example, resources/views/auth/login.blade.php for users and resources/views/admin/login.blade.php for admins.

Step 6: Update Unauthenticated Method

In your app/Exceptions/Handler.php, update the unauthenticated method to redirect users based on the guard:

protected function unauthenticated($request, AuthenticationException $exception)
{
    if ($request->expectsJson()) {
        return response()->json(['message' => $exception->getMessage()], 401);
    }

    $guard = Arr::get($exception->guards(), 0);
    switch ($guard) {
        case 'admin':
            $login = 'admin.login';
            break;
        default:
            $login = 'login';
            break;
    }

    return redirect()->guest(route($login));
}

Make sure to import the necessary classes at the top of your Handler.php file:

use Illuminate\Auth\AuthenticationException;
use Illuminate\Support\Arr;

With these steps, you should have a multi-user authentication system in place with Laravel 11. Each user type will have its own login page, and unauthenticated users will be redirected to the correct login page based on the guard they are attempting to access.