Form-based login configuration in Spring Boot - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Form-based login configuration

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Spring Boot web application that requires users to log in with a username and password.To keep things secure and user-friendly, you will set up form-based login using Spring Security.

🎯 Goal: Create a Spring Boot security configuration that enables form-based login with a custom login page.Users should be able to access the login form, submit credentials, and be authenticated.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a security configuration class

Enable HTTP security with form-based login

Set a custom login page URL

Allow all users to access the login page without authentication

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Form-based login is a common way to authenticate users on websites and web applications, providing a user-friendly interface for entering credentials.

💼 Career

Understanding how to configure form-based login with Spring Security is essential for backend developers working on secure Java web applications.

1

Create the security configuration class

Create a class called SecurityConfig annotated with @Configuration and @EnableWebSecurity.

Spring Boot

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use @Configuration to mark the class as a configuration and @EnableWebSecurity to enable Spring Security.

2

Add the HTTP security configuration method

Inside SecurityConfig, add a SecurityFilterChain bean method called filterChain that takes HttpSecurity http as a parameter and throws Exception.

Spring Boot

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

    @Bean
    public SecurityFilterChain filterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Define a bean method that returns SecurityFilterChain and accepts HttpSecurity.

3

Configure form-based login with a custom login page

In the filterChain method, configure http to authorize all requests to be authenticated, enable form login with a custom login page at /login, and allow everyone to access the login page.

Spring Boot

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

    @Bean
    public SecurityFilterChain filterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        // Your code here
        return http.build();
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use authorizeHttpRequests to require authentication for all requests.

Use formLogin to set the login page URL and allow all users to access it.

4

Add a simple controller for the login page

Create a LoginController class annotated with @Controller that has a method loginPage mapped to /login returning the string "login" to show the login view.

Spring Boot

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

    @Bean
    public SecurityFilterChain filterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        http
            .authorizeHttpRequests(auth -> auth
                .anyRequest().authenticated()
            )
            .formLogin(form -> form
                .loginPage("/login")
                .permitAll()
            );
        return http.build();
    }
}

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Create a controller to serve the login page view at /login.