Manually Authenticating Users Laravel - Note that you are not required to use the authentication controllers included with Laravel. If you choose to remove these controllers, you will need to manage user authentication using the Laravel authentication classes directly. Don't worry, it's a cinch!

We will access Laravel's authentication services via the Auth facade, so we'll need to make sure to import the Auth facade at the top of the class. Next, let's check out the attempt method:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class LoginController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Handle an authentication attempt.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
     *
     * @return Response
     */
    public function authenticate(Request $request)
    {
        $credentials = $request->only('email', 'password');

        if (Auth::attempt($credentials)) {
            // Authentication passed...
            return redirect()->intended('dashboard');
        }
    }
}

The attempt method accepts an array of key / value pairs as its first argument. The values in the array will be used to find the user in your database table. So, in the example above, the user will be retrieved by the value of the email column. If the user is found, the hashed password stored in the database will be compared with the password value passed to the method via the array. You should not hash the password specified as the password value, since the framework will automatically hash the value before comparing it to the hashed password in the database. If the two hashed passwords match an authenticated session will be started for the user.

The attempt method will return true if authentication was successful. Otherwise, false will be returned.

The intended method on the redirector will redirect the user to the URL they were attempting to access before being intercepted by the authentication middleware. A fallback URI may be given to this method in case the intended destination is not available.

Specifying Additional Conditions

If you wish, you may also add extra conditions to the authentication query in addition to the user's e-mail and password. For example, we may verify that user is marked as "active":

if (Auth::attempt(['email' => $email, 'password' => $password, 'active' => 1])) {
    // The user is active, not suspended, and exists.
}

Accessing Specific Guard Instances

You may specify which guard instance you would like to utilize using the guard method on the Auth facade. This allows you to manage authentication for separate parts of your application using entirely separate authenticatable models or user tables.

The guard name passed to the guard method should correspond to one of the guards configured in your auth.php configuration file:

if (Auth::guard('admin')->attempt($credentials)) {
    //
}

Logging Out

To log users out of your application, you may use the logout method on the Auth facade. This will clear the authentication information in the user's session:

Auth::logout();

Laravel also provides methods to log a user out of the application only on their current device, or to log a user out of the application on their other devices:

Auth::logoutCurrentDevice();

Auth::logoutOtherDevices();