Login Discussion

RajeshKumar1

Yes, Rajesh — you can absolutely share the login session from your main patient service (www.myhospitalnow.com) with the other services (/hospitals, /doctors) even though they don’t have login/register themselves.

But there are important requirements and caveats you must follow.

✅ Goal:

Users log in only once at www.myhospitalnow.com
When they visit myhospitalnow.com/hospitals or /doctors, they’re still recognized as logged in (session available)

⚙️ Your Architecture:

| URL | Purpose | Laravel App? |
| ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------ |
| https://www.myhospitalnow.com | Login/Register + Patient Dashboard | ✅ Yes |
| https://www.myhospitalnow.com/hospitals | Display hospitals (no login) | ✅ Yes |
| https://www.myhospitalnow.com/doctors | Display doctors (no login) | ✅ Yes |

✅ YES – Session Can Be Shared IF You Follow These Rules:

✅ 1. Use the Same Root Domain

You are already using www.myhospitalnow.com for everything — great!
Don’t move /hospitals or /doctors to subdomains unless you're ready to rework session architecture

✅ 2. Set Laravel Session Domain Properly

In all 3 Laravel apps (/, /hospitals, /doctors), update config/session.php:

'domain' => '.myhospitalnow.com',  // Notice the dot prefix!

And also in .env:

SESSION_DOMAIN=.myhospitalnow.com

This ensures the session cookie is available to:

www.myhospitalnow.com
www.myhospitalnow.com/hospitals
www.myhospitalnow.com/doctors

✅ 3. Use Same Encryption & Session Key Settings

All 3 Laravel apps must share the same APP_KEY in their .env files:

APP_KEY=base64:YOUR_SHARED_KEY

If they don’t, encrypted cookies will not be decryptable across services.

✅ 4. Use Same Session Driver

Use either cookie, database, or redis — but must be same across all apps.

Example in .env:

SESSION_DRIVER=cookie

Or, better (for shared apps):

SESSION_DRIVER=database

Ensure session table is synced across all apps.

✅ 5. Middleware Configuration

Each Laravel app must include:

'web',
\Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,

If you use custom middlewares (like auth guards), ensure they don’t block the session reading.

✅ 6. Authentication Guard Logic

In /hospitals or /doctors, to check login session from patient login:

if (Auth::check()) {
    $user = Auth::user();
    // Use $user info
} else {
    // Optionally redirect to /login or show limited view
}

Even though these routes don’t offer login/register themselves, the session is still readable.

✅ 7. Secure Cookie Settings

Ensure all apps use HTTPS and your cookie settings allow cross-path access:

SESSION_SECURE_COOKIE=true

✅ Summary – What You MUST Do

| Setting | Value |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Domain | www.myhospitalnow.com for all services |
| SESSION_DOMAIN | .myhospitalnow.com |
| APP_KEY | Same across all apps |
| SESSION_DRIVER | Same (cookie or database) |
| Laravel Middleware | Include web & StartSession |
| Cookie secure (HTTPS) | true |
| Use Auth::check() | On /hospitals, /doctors |

❗ Important Note

This only works if all 3 apps are hosted on same domain (www.myhospitalnow.com)
If you ever move /hospitals or /doctors to subdomains (like hospitals.myhospitalnow.com), you must switch to a token-based system (e.g., Laravel Sanctum or JWT)

🚀 Example

User logs in at www.myhospitalnow.com

Laravel sets a cookie:

   Cookie: laravel_session=xyz; Domain=.myhospitalnow.com; Path=/; Secure

User opens www.myhospitalnow.com/doctors
Laravel app for /doctors reads the cookie, Auth::check() returns true

Would you like:

Example Laravel app setup with shared session working?
Help switching to token-based (if planning for subdomains)?

Let me know, and I’ll help you build it.

RajeshKumar1

Great, Rajesh. Since you’re using Laravel for all microservices (doctors, hospitals, patient portal), I’ll guide you through a complete step-by-step setup to create a centralized auth service at auth.myhospitalnow.com and integrate it with all other services.

✅ GOAL

Set up:

auth.myhospitalnow.com → Central login system (Auth Service)
www.myhospitalnow.com/hospitals, /doctors, /patient-portal → Use token from Auth to authenticate

🧩 TECH STACK OVERVIEW

Laravel 11 (or latest)
Laravel Sanctum for token-based auth (simple, secure for SPAs + microservices)
All services deployed under same root domain (.myhospitalnow.com)
All Laravel apps share common user/auth table via API

✅ STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SETUP `auth.myhospitalnow.com`

🔹 1. Create the Auth Service (Laravel App)

composer create-project laravel/laravel auth-service
cd auth-service

🔹 2. Set Sanctum for API Authentication

composer require laravel/sanctum
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sanctum\SanctumServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

In config/sanctum.php, set:

'stateful' => explode(',', env('SANCTUM_STATEFUL_DOMAINS', '.myhospitalnow.com')),

🔹 3. Setup CORS to Allow All Services

Edit config/cors.php:

'paths' => ['api/*', 'login', 'logout', 'sanctum/csrf-cookie'],
'allowed_origins' => ['https://*.myhospitalnow.com'],
'allowed_headers' => ['*'],
'allowed_methods' => ['*'],
'supports_credentials' => true,

🔹 4. Configure Cookie Domain (Important!)

In config/session.php:

'domain' => '.myhospitalnow.com',

Also in .env:

SESSION_DOMAIN=.myhospitalnow.com
SANCTUM_STATEFUL_DOMAINS=.myhospitalnow.com

🔹 5. Create Login, Logout & User APIs

In routes/api.php:

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use App\Models\User;

Route::post('/login', function (Request $request) {
    $credentials = $request->only('email', 'password');

    if (!Auth::attempt($credentials)) {
        return response()->json(['message' => 'Invalid credentials'], 401);
    }

    $request->session()->regenerate();
    return response()->json(Auth::user());
});

Route::get('/user', function (Request $request) {
    return $request->user();
})->middleware('auth:sanctum');

Route::post('/logout', function (Request $request) {
    Auth::guard('web')->logout();
    $request->session()->invalidate();
    $request->session()->regenerateToken();
    return response()->json(['message' => 'Logged out']);
});

🔹 6. Expose Auth API to Other Services

Use HTTPS (important for cookies)
Accept cross-origin credentials (via Sanctum + CORS)
Each service (doctor, hospital, patient) will:
- Hit auth.myhospitalnow.com/login
- Store the session cookie
- Call auth.myhospitalnow.com/user to verify login

🔄 STEP 7: Update Other Laravel Services (Hospital/Doctor/Patient Portals)

In each other service (hospitals, doctors, patient-portal):

📦 A. Install Sanctum (same way as above)

composer require laravel/sanctum

Update .env:

SANCTUM_STATEFUL_DOMAINS=.myhospitalnow.com
SESSION_DOMAIN=.myhospitalnow.com

⚙️ B. Set CORS and session domain (same as above)

🔌 C. Instead of local login, call Auth API

In your services, do not use native Laravel login — instead, send a POST request to:

POST https://auth.myhospitalnow.com/api/login

with:

{
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "password": "password"
}

If successful:

A session cookie will be set for .myhospitalnow.com
Now you can use auth.myhospitalnow.com/api/user to get current user

🧪 D. On All Pages, Call Auth API to Get User Info

Example (in hospital portal):

$response = Http::withCookies($_COOKIE, '.myhospitalnow.com')
    ->get('https://auth.myhospitalnow.com/api/user');

$user = $response->json();

Use this to check who’s logged in (doctor, hospital admin, etc.)

✅ BONUS: Add Roles to User Table

In your users table (central auth DB), add a role column:

$table->enum('role', ['patient', 'doctor', 'hospital']);

Use this to redirect after login:

role == doctor → go to /doctors/dashboard
role == hospital → /hospitals/dashboard
etc.

✅ Architecture Recap

               +----------------------------+
               |    auth.myhospitalnow.com |
               |  (Laravel + Sanctum)      |
               +------------+--------------+
                            |
                            | Session Cookie (Domain=.myhospitalnow.com)
                            v
+---------------------+  +---------------------+  +----------------------+
| patient-portal      |  | hospitals portal    |  | doctors portal       |
| Laravel app         |  | Laravel app         |  | Laravel app          |
| auth via API        |  | calls /user on auth |  | calls /user on auth  |
+---------------------+  +---------------------+  +----------------------+

✅ Final Testing Checklist

| Task | Status |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ------ |
| Sanctum installed on all services | ✅ |
| Session domain set to .myhospitalnow.com | ✅ |
| Login only via auth.myhospitalnow.com | ✅ |
| Other services verify session using /api/user | ✅ |
| Roles handled for redirection | ✅ |

Would you like me to:

Provide Laravel login controller code calling external auth?
Give a working Vue/Flutter login flow with token support?
Set up multi-guard Laravel logic for different roles?

Let me know, and I’ll guide you through the rest!