PHP Discourse Client for the Laravel Framework

Version Compatibility

Laravel	Discourse Client
> 5.8.x	Untested
5.8.x	0.0.2

Getting Started

Before going through the rest of this documentation, please take some time to read the Discourse API Documentation. Not all of the API calls are documented, but it's a good place to start. Additional help with SSO: https://meta.discourse.org

Installation

To install through composer, simply put the following in your composer.json file:

{
    "require": {
        "matthew-jensen/laravel-discourse-client": "^0.0.2"
    }
}

And then run composer install from the terminal.

Add the following to config/app.php:

    /*
    * $APP_PATH/config/app.php
    */
    'providers' => [
        MatthewJensen\LaravelDiscourse\DiscourseServiceProvider::class
    ],

You can optionally publish the config file with:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="MatthewJensen\LaravelDiscourse\DiscourseServiceProvider" --tag="config"

This is the contents of the published config file:

<?php
return [

    // API token. 
    'token' => env('DISCOURSE_TOKEN')

    // Middleware for the SSO login route to use
    'middleware' => ['web', 'auth'],

    // The route's URI that acts as the entry point for Discourse to start the SSO process.
    // Used by Discourse to route incoming logins.
    'route' => 'discourse/sso',
    'logout' => 'discourse/sso/logout',
    
    // Secret string used to encrypt/decrypt SSO information,
    // be sure that it is 10 chars or longer
    'secret' => env('DISCOURSE_SECRET'),
    
    // Disable Discourse from sending welcome message
    'suppress_welcome_message' => 'true',
    
    // Where the Discourse forum lives
    'url' => env('DISCOURSE_URL'),
    
    // User-specific items
    // NOTE: The 'email' & 'external_id' are the only 2 required fields
    'user' => [
        // Check to see if the user has forum access & should be logged in via SSO
        'access' => null,
    
        // Discourse Groups to make sure that the user is part of in a comma-separated string
        // NOTE: Groups cannot have spaces in their names & must already exist in Discourse
        'add_groups' => null,

        // Boolean for making the user a Discourse admin. Leave null to ignore
        'admin' => 'discourse_admin',

        // Full path to user's avatar image
        'avatar_url' => null,
        
        // The avatar is cached, so this triggers an update
        'avatar_force_update' => false,
        
        // Content of the user's bio
        'bio' => null,
        
        // Verified email address (see "require_activation" if not verified)
        'email' => 'email',
        
        // Unique string for the user that will never change
        'external_id' => 'id',
        
        // Boolean for making user a Discourse moderator. Leave null to ignore 
        'moderator' => 'discourse_moderator',
        
        // Full name on Discourse if the user is new or 
        // if SiteSetting.sso_overrides_name is set
        'name' => 'name',

        // Discourse Groups to make sure that the user is *NOT* part of in a comma-separated string.
        // NOTE: Groups cannot have spaces in their names & must already exist in Discourse
        // There is not a way to specify the exact list of groups that a user is in, so
        // you may want to send the inverse of the 'add_groups'
        'remove_groups' => null,
        
        // If the email has not been verified, set this to true
        'require_activation' => false,
        
        // username on Discourse if the user is new or 
        // if SiteSetting.sso_overrides_username is set
        'username' => 'email',
    ],
];

Configure Laravel Discourse

Laravel Env

Set the API Token, Forum url and SSO Token in your .env:

DISCOURSE_URL=https://forum.url
DISCOURSE_SECRET={sso secret}
DISCOURSE_TOKEN={api token}

Discourse Env

Enable SSO Via UI: see: "{DISCOURSE_URL}/admin/site_settings/category/required?filter="

Via console:

cd /var/discourse
./launcher enter app
rails c
irb > SiteSetting.sso_secret = {config('discourse.secret')}
irb > SiteSetting.sso_url = {config('discourse.route')}
irb > SiteSetting.logout_redirect = {config('discourse.logout')}
irb > SiteSetting.enable_sso = true
irb > SiteSetting.enable_local_logins = false
irb > exit
exit

TODO

• Artisan command to set sso secret, route and enable sso to install out of the box (could be done via API calls in Facade).

Credits

SSO Helper Methods: cviebrock/discourse-php.

SSO Controller Methods: spinen/laravel-discourse-sso.

API Methods: discoursehosting/discourse-api-php.