Auth Packages Introduction

To implement user authentication in a Beego application, we need a combination of Beego’s built-in components and other packages that provide additional functionality. Here are some of the essential packages and components:

• Session management: Beego includes a session management package. This package allows us to store and manage user session data securely. This is essential for maintaining a user authentication state across requests.

• Filters/middleware: Beego allows developers to define custom filter functions/middleware. These filters can alter the request or response and perform operations common to multiple handlers. Filters are generally used to manage sessions, handle authentication, and more. In other words, they are a generic way to execute code before and after the handler function.

• Password hashing: To securely hash and verify user passwords, we need the bcrypt package or a similar package for password hashing.

Session management

Let’s explore how to implement session management in the Beego web framework. This allows us to maintain user states, store temporary data, and enhance the user experience. We will be using Beego’s session management package to maintain sessions.

This package provides a way to set, retrieve, and clear the session.

Filters/middleware

In the Beego framework, before and after filters are functions that allow us to intercept and modify requests and responses in the request processing flow. They perform actions before and after the main handler function.

Before filters

Before filters are executed before the main handler function for a specific route. They can be used to perform tasks such as authentication, authorization, input validation, or any other preprocessing that needs to be done before the request is handled by the main handler.

After filters

After filters are executed after the main handler function has completed its execution. They can be used to modify the response, log information, or perform any post-processing tasks.

Filter definition

Both the filters are defined using the InsertFilter() function. It has the following signature: