Laravel Cache Auth::user(). Learn how to cache the logged in user at https://paulund.co.uk/laravel-cache-authuser

AppServiceProvider.php

<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use App\Models\User;
use App\Observers\UserObserver;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        User::observe(UserObserver::class);
    }

    /**
     * Register any application services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function register()
    {
        //
    }
}

auth.php

// Config/auth.php
'providers' => [
        'users' => [
            'driver' => 'cache-user',
            'model' => App\Models\User::class,
        ]
    ]

AuthServiceProvider.php

<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use App\Auth\CacheUserProvider;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Support\Providers\AuthServiceProvider as ServiceProvider;

class AuthServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * The policy mappings for the application.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $policies = [

    ];

    /**
     * Register any authentication / authorization services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        // Caching user
        Auth::provider('cache-user', function() {
            return resolve(CacheUserProvider::class);
        });
    }
}

CacheUserProvider.php

<?php

namespace App\Auth;

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Auth\EloquentUserProvider;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Hashing\Hasher as HasherContract;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

/**
 * Class CacheUserProvider
 * @package App\Auth
 */
class CacheUserProvider extends EloquentUserProvider
{
    /**
     * CacheUserProvider constructor.
     * @param HasherContract $hasher
     */
    public function __construct(HasherContract $hasher)
    {
        parent::__construct($hasher, User::class);
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $identifier
     * @return \Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Authenticatable|null
     */
    public function retrieveById($identifier)
    {
        return Cache::get("user.$identifier") ?? parent::retrieveById($identifier);
    }
}

UserObserver.php

<?php
namespace App\Observers;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

/**
 * User observer
 */
class UserObserver
{
    /**
     * @param User $user
     */
    public function saved(User $user)
    {
        Cache::put("user.{$user->id}", $user, 60);
    }

    /**
     * @param User $user
     */
    public function deleted(User $user)
    {
        Cache::forget("user.{$user->id}");
    }

    /**
     * @param User $user
     */
    public function restored(User $user)
    {
        Cache::put("user.{$user->id}", $user, 60);
    }

    /**
     * @param User $user
     */
    public function retrieved(User $user)
    {
        Cache::add("user.{$user->id}", $user, 60);
    }
}

Thanks for writing this! It's really helpful and inspiring.

About a couple months ago I was looking for one to cache auth user model and jumped into this. However, when I apply it to my project it initially did not work as expected. My cached user model is only achieved during guest login, but not for those already logged users. btw I used laravel 5.7 not sure if it is because of this.

After some time I figured out that apart from retrieveById, there's the retrieveByToken function that may also needs override, so that after logging with credentials, cached user model can still be retrieved by the Auth facade, via session token.

If others run into the same issue, I've written down what I did on laravel 5.7 here: https://github.com/lyn510/laravel-auth-user

I have a question: when using this, how can I make sure to skip the cache when I really need to get the user from the DB? Will User::find($id) do it? I suspect it will, but need to make sure.

Hi @janzankowski this shouldn't be used for fetching users, this method is used to stop making calls to the database when the user has logged into your application.

hi @paulund,

big applause for your idea on caching logged in user. i've got it working & it works like charm. thanks again.

and i wanted to share a bit of modification on user observer, to invalidate the cached user when the user is updating their profile.
so in case anyone stuck on getting the cache not being refreshed after a user updated their profile, here's my user observer.

<?php
namespace App\Observers;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

class CacheLoggedInUserObserver
{
    public function saved(User $user)
    {
        $this->deleted($user);

        Cache::remember("user.{$user->id}", 60, function () use ($user) {
            return $user;
        });
    }

    public function deleted(User $user)
    {
        Cache::forget("user.{$user->id}");
    }

    public function restored(User $user)
    {
        $this->saved($user);
    }

    public function retrieved(User $user)
    {
        $this->saved($user);
    }
}

CacheUserProvider.php

Line number 31 should be.

    public function retrieveById($identifier)
    {
        return \Cache::get("user.$identifier") ?? parent::retrieveById($identifier);
    }

CacheUserProvider
Line number 31 should be.

    /**
     * @param mixed $identifier
     * @return \Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Authenticatable|null
     */
    public function retrieveById($identifier)
    {
        return Cache::get("user.$identifier") ?? parent::retrieveById($identifier); // here little Type
    }