Using the Remember me feature with Sentry in Laravel 4 - laravel

Question

I'm trying to get a login form to 'remember' the user logging in and I just can't work out how to do it.
Here's my controller
public function getLogin()
{
// Return the view with the data
return View::make('users.login');
}
public function postLogin()
{
// Gather Sanitized Input
$input = array(
'email' => Binput::get('email'),
'password' => Binput::get('password'),
'rememberMe' => Binput::get('rememberMe')
);
// Set Validation Rules
$rules = array (
'email' => 'required|min:4|max:64|email',
'password' => 'required|min:6'
);
//Run input validation
$v = Validator::make($input, $rules);
if ($v->fails())
{
// Validation has failed
return Redirect::to('users/login')->withErrors($v)->withInput();
}
else
{
try
{
//Check for suspension or banned status
$user = Sentry::getUserProvider()->findByLogin($input['email']);
$throttle = Sentry::getThrottleProvider()->findByUserId($user->id);
$throttle->check();
// Set login credentials
$credentials = array(
'email' => $input['email'],
'password' => $input['password']
);
// Try to authenticate the user
$user = Sentry::authenticate($credentials, $input['rememberMe']);
Sentry::loginAndRemember($user);
}
catch (Cartalyst\Sentry\Users\UserNotFoundException $e)
{
// Sometimes a user is found, however hashed credentials do
// not match. Therefore a user technically doesn't exist
// by those credentials. Check the error message returned
// for more information.
Session::flash('error', 'Invalid username or password.' );
return Redirect::to('users/login')->withErrors($v)->withInput();
}
catch (Cartalyst\Sentry\Users\UserNotActivatedException $e)
{
echo 'User not activated.';
Session::flash('error', 'You have not yet activated this account.');
return Redirect::to('users/login')->withErrors($v)->withInput();
}
// The following is only required if throttle is enabled
catch (Cartalyst\Sentry\Throttling\UserSuspendedException $e)
{
$time = $throttle->getSuspensionTime();
Session::flash('error', "Your account has been suspended for $time minutes.");
return Redirect::to('users/login')->withErrors($v)->withInput();
}
catch (Cartalyst\Sentry\Throttling\UserBannedException $e)
{
Session::flash('error', 'You have been banned.');
return Redirect::to('users/login')->withErrors($v)->withInput();
}
return Redirect::to('/');
}
}
/**
* Logout
*/
public function getLogout()
{
Session::flush();
Sentry::logout();
return Redirect::to('/');
}
And here's my View
#extends('layouts/master')
{{-- Web site Title --}}
#section('title')
#stop
{{-- Content --}}
#section('content')
<div class="tck-well span6 offset3">
<h1>Login</h1>
<form class="" action="{{ URL::to('users/login') }}" method="post">
{{ Form::token(); }}
<div class="control-group {{ ($errors->has('email')) ? 'error' : '' }}" for="email">
<label class="control-label" for="email">E-mail</label>
<div class="controls">
<input name="email" id="email" value="{{ Request::old('email') }}" type="text" class="input-xlarge" placeholder="E-mail">
{{ ($errors->has('email') ? $errors->first('email') : '') }}
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group {{ $errors->has('password') ? 'error' : '' }}" for="password">
<label class="control-label" for="password">Password</label>
<div class="controls">
<input name="password" value="" type="password" class="input-xlarge" placeholder="New Password">
{{ ($errors->has('password') ? $errors->first('password') : '') }}
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group" for"rememberme">
<div class="controls">
<label class="checkbox inline">
<input type="checkbox" name="rememberMe" value="1"> Remember Me
</label>
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-actions">
<input class="button button-large button-secondary" type="submit" value="Log In">
Forgot Password?
</div>
</form>
</div>
#stop
Can someone help point me in the right direction please?

Answer 1

You could also use the helper method:
if( Input::get('rememberMe') ) {
$user = Sentry::authenticateAndRemember($credentials)
} else {
$user = Sentry::authenticate($credentials, false);
}

Answer 2

Similar to Devo's
// Try to log the user in
Sentry::authenticate(Input::only('email', 'password'), Input::get('remember-me', 0));
// For the view page
<input type="checkbox" name="remember-me" id="remember-me" value="1" /> Remember me;

Answer 3

Instead of,
$user = Sentry::authenticate($credentials, $input['rememberMe']);
Use,
if(!empty($input['rememberMe'])) {
$user = Sentry::authenticate($credentials, true);
} else {
$user = Sentry::authenticate($credentials, false);
}
And make sure you are getting some value in $input['rememberMe'].

Answer 4

From GitHub it seems setting gc_maxlifetime in php.ini (or .htaccess) is sometimes necessary as well..
session.gc_maxlifetime = 2592000

Answer 5

In app/config/session.php add this lines:
'lifetime' => 999999,
'expire_on_close' => false,