Symfony Private Beta Login

Question

I'm looking to setup a private beta on a symfony site I'm launching soon. I've got a list of invited people's email addresses to check against in a text file on the server, and I'd like to present people with an html form whenever they try to access the site without permission. Once a person has entered their email address, it should redirect them to the home page. The tricky part is that past that I'm using FOSUserBundle with a whole account login system already in place. How should I approach this problem? The person logging in with their email doesn't have an account yet, so I can't just add a role like INVITED_USER to their user document, so I'm thinking about trying to store their status in their session, and checking that using symfony 2.4's allow_if expression, but I get an error:

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Symfony\\Component\\Config\\Definition\\Exception\\InvalidConfigurationException' with message 'Unrecognized options "allow_if" under "security.access_control.17"' in C:\\wamp\\www\\vendor\\symfony\\symfony\\src\\Symfony\\Component\\Config\\Definition\\ArrayNode.php on line 306

My security.yml file looks like this:

security:
    encoders:
        FOS\UserBundle\Model\UserInterface: sha512

    role_hierarchy:
        ROLE_ADMIN:       ROLE_USER
        ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN: ROLE_ADMIN

    providers:
        fos_userbundle:
            id: fos_user.user_provider.username_email

    firewalls:
        beta:
            pattern: ^/
            anonymous: ~
            form_login:
                login_path: /beta
                check_path: /beta_invite_check
                always_use_default_target_path: true
                default_target_path: /
            logout:
                path: /logout
                target: /
        main:
            pattern:  ^/
            form_login:
                check_path: /login_check
                provider: fos_userbundle
                always_use_default_target_path: false
                default_target_path: /profile
                use_referer: true
                success_handler: security.authentication.handler

            logout:
                path:   /logout
                target: /
                invalidate_session: false
            anonymous: ~

        login:
            pattern: ^/login$
            security: false

    access_control:
        - { path: ^/beta, role: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
        - { path: ^/login$, role: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
        - { path: ^/register, role: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
        - { path: ^/resetting, role: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
        - { path: ^/account, roles: ROLE_USER}
        - { path: /_wdt/.*, role: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
        - { path: /_profiler/.*, role: IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY }
        - { path: ^/profile, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/submit, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/submissions, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/uploadCredits, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/transactions, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/activity, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/browse/join, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/browse/follow, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/browse/unfollow, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/player/rating, role: ROLE_USER }
        - { path: ^/, allow_if: "'BETA_ALLOWED' == request.getSession().beta" }

Does anyone know why this is happening? allow_if seems to be a new feature so maybe someone's bundle isn't playing nice with it? Here's my composer.json file too, just in case:

{
    "name": "symfony/framework-standard-edition",
    "description": "The \"Symfony Standard Edition\" distribution",
    "autoload": {
        "psr-0": { "": "src/" }
    },
    "require": {
        "doctrine/mongodb-odm": "1.0.*@dev",
        "doctrine/mongodb-odm-bundle": "3.0.*@dev",
        "php": ">=5.3.3",
        "symfony/symfony": "2.4.1",
        "doctrine/orm": "~2.2,>=2.2.3",
        "doctrine/doctrine-bundle": "1.2.*",
        "twig/extensions": "1.0.*",
        "symfony/assetic-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "hipaway-travel/mandrill-bundle": "dev-master",
        "symfony/monolog-bundle": "2.2.*",
        "sensio/distribution-bundle": "2.2.*",
        "sensio/framework-extra-bundle": "2.2.*",
        "sensio/generator-bundle": "2.2.*",
        "jms/security-extra-bundle": "dev-master",
        "friendsofsymfony/user-bundle": "~2.0.*@dev",
        "jms/di-extra-bundle": "dev-master",
        "sonata-project/media-bundle": "2.2.*@dev",
        "sonata-project/admin-bundle": "2.2.*@dev",
        "sonata-project/core-bundle": "2.2.*@dev",
        "sonata-project/doctrine-mongodb-admin-bundle": "2.2.*@dev",
        "avalanche123/imagine-bundle": "v2.1",
        "braintree/braintree_php" : "dev-master",
        "cometcult/braintree-bundle": "dev-master",
        "paypal/rest-api-sdk-php": "dev-master",
        "kmj/paypalbridgebundle": "dev-master",
        "hwi/oauth-bundle": "0.3.*@dev",
        "cboden/Ratchet": "0.3.0",
        "react/zmq": "0.2.*"

    },
    "scripts": {
        "post-install-cmd": [
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::buildBootstrap",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::clearCache",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installAssets",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installRequirementsFile"
        ],
        "post-update-cmd": [
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::buildBootstrap",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::clearCache",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installAssets",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installRequirementsFile"
        ]
    },
    "config": {
        "bin-dir": "bin"
    },
    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "extra": {
        "symfony-app-dir": "app",
        "symfony-web-dir": "web"
    }
}

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The way I've implemented this before is using an Invitation entity.

1. Generate an Invitation code and email the user with a link to the register form
2. Only accept registrations that include a valid invitation code

You'll need to extend the registration form with the new invitation field and the registration controller action .

Basically read this: https://github.com/FriendsOfSymfony/FOSUserBundle/blob/master/Resources/doc/adding_invitation_registration.md

:)

TLDR; Don't worry about the first login and use an invite system instead.