symfony2-pragmatically-authemticate-user.md

How to login a user programatically in Symfony2

First, insert use statement at the top of the file:

<?php

use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Authentication\Token\UsernamePasswordToken;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Event\InteractiveLoginEvent;

Then proceed to authenticate the user:

<?php

// create the authentication token
$token = new UsernamePasswordToken($user, null, "your_firewall_name", $user->getRoles());
$this->get("security.context")->setToken($token); //now the user is logged in

//now dispatch the login event
$request = $this->get("request");
$event = new InteractiveLoginEvent($request, $token);
$this->get("event_dispatcher")->dispatch("security.interactive_login", $event);

Dispatching the event is important, it allows listeners to fire appropriate login actions