Creating Password Reset Functionality in Laravel

1. Introduction

This tutorial aims to guide you on how to add password reset functionality to your Laravel application. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to handle password reset requests and updates securely.

Prerequisites:
- Basic knowledge of PHP and Laravel
- Laravel environment setup

2. Step-by-Step Guide

In Laravel, password reset functionality is simplified by the framework's built-in functions. We'll be using Laravel's pre-defined routes and controllers, specifically for the password reset, and the Laravel's Auth scaffolding.

Step 1: To begin with, you need to set up Laravel's authentication scaffold by running the following command in your terminal:

php artisan make:auth

Step 2: Next, run the migrations to set up the necessary tables in your database:

php artisan migrate

Step 3: Open the 'routes/web.php' file and you'll find the following code:

Auth::routes();

This code includes routes for login, registration, logout, and password reset.

Step 4: If you navigate to '/password/reset' in your application, you'll find the password reset form.

3. Code Examples

Let's have a look at the behind-the-scenes code.

ResetPasswordController.php

// This is where the password reset request is handled.
public function reset(Request $request)
{
    $this->validate($request, $this->rules(), $this->validationErrorMessages());

    // Here we will attempt to reset the user's password. If it is successful we
    // will update the password on an actual user model and persist it to the
    // database. Otherwise we will parse the error and return the response.
    $response = $this->broker()->reset(
        $this->credentials($request), function ($user, $password) {
            $this->resetPassword($user, $password);
        }
    );

    // If the password was successfully reset, we will redirect the user back to
    // the application's home authenticated view. If there is an error we can
    // redirect them back to where they came from with their error message.
    return $response == Password::PASSWORD_RESET
                ? $this->sendResetResponse($response)
                : $this->sendResetFailedResponse($request, $response);
}

This function validates the request, attempts to reset the password, and finally, depending on whether the reset was successful or not, redirects the user.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, you learned how to add password reset functionality to your Laravel application using Laravel's built-in functions and Auth scaffolding.

For more advanced features, you can explore Laravel's documentation and experiment with customizing these controllers and views.

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Modify the password reset email that Laravel sends by default.

Exercise 2: Implement a password strength checker on the reset password form.

Exercise 3: Customize the password reset functionality to add a security question before the password reset.

Solutions can be found in the Laravel documentation and various online resources. Make sure to test your application thoroughly after implementing these changes to ensure a secure and user-friendly experience.