Laravel 5.2 - Auth: display custom error messages

Question

How can I customize the error messages (such as "These credentials do not match our records.") that are displayed upon unsuccessful login/registration without having to touch the foundation files? I'm looking for a solution and hopefully an elegant one, at least not touching AuthenticatesAndRegistersUsers nor ThrottlesLogins :)

I'm using the AuthController and forms provided by Laravel after executing:

php artisan make:auth

Controller:

(it only has a constructor and two methods, the rest falls on the foundation, the methods are:)

protected function validator(array $data)
{
    return Validator::make($data, [
        'name' => 'required|max:255',
        'email' => 'required|email|max:255|unique:users',
        'password' => 'required|confirmed|min:6',
    ]);
}
protected function create(array $data)
{
    return User::create([
        'name' => $data['name'],
        'email' => $data['email'],
        'password' => bcrypt($data['password']),
    ]);
}

Form:

<form class="form-horizontal" role="form" method="POST" action="{{ url('/login') }}">
{!! csrf_field() !!}

<div class="form-group{{ $errors->has('email') ? ' has-error' : '' }}">
    <label class="col-md-4 control-label">E-Mail</label>

    <div class="col-md-6">
        <input type="email" class="form-control" name="email" value="{{ old('email') }}" required>

        @if ($errors->has('email'))
            <span class="help-block">
                <strong>{{ $errors->first('email') }}</strong>
            </span>
        @endif
    </div>
</div>

<div class="form-group{{ $errors->has('password') ? ' has-error' : '' }}">
    <label class="col-md-4 control-label">Password</label>

    <div class="col-md-6">
        <input type="password" class="form-control" name="password" required>

        @if ($errors->has('password'))
            <span class="help-block">
                <strong>{{ $errors->first('password') }}</strong>
            </span>
        @endif
    </div>
</div>

<div class="form-group">
    <div class="col-md-6 col-md-offset-4">
        <div class="checkbox">
            <label>
                <input type="checkbox" name="remember"> Remember Me
            </label>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="form-group">
    <div class="col-md-6 col-md-offset-4">
        <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">
            <i class="fa fa-btn fa-sign-in"></i>Login
        </button>

        <a class="btn btn-link" href="{{ url('/password/reset') }}">Forgot Your Password?</a>
    </div>
</div>

Thank you!

Answer 1

You can override getFailedLoginMessage on the AuthController which comes from the AuthenticatesUsers trait

protected function getFailedLoginMessage()
{
    return 'what you want here.';
}

Or not override it and set a lang value for auth.failed. The getFailedLoginMessage method will check for Lang::has('auth.failed') and use that if its available.

For the actual validation error messages you can override the postLogin and pass your own array of messages to validate, or if you wanted to change them globally you can adjust them in the appropriate lang file in resources/lang/{lang}/validation.php.

Answer 2

You don't want to override the getFailedLoginMessage() method in AuthController. The proper solution is to change the message in the designed location. If you look in the Resources > lang > en folder, you will see an auth.php file. In it, there is a "failed" attribute with a message you can customize. Change it there. The orignial getFailedLoginMessage() method in the Laravel auth files in vendor looks to that location for a custom message first, before settling on the default.