I got it working...
here is my AppController:
class AppController extends Controller {
var $components = array('Auth');
function beforeFilter() {
// this is part of cake that serves up static pages, it should be authorized by default
$this->Auth->allow('display');
// tell cake to look on the user model itself for the password hashing function
$this->Auth->authenticate = ClassRegistry::init('User');
// tell cake where our credentials are on the User entity
$this->Auth->fields = array(
'username' => 'user',
'password' => 'pass',
);
// this is where we want to go after a login... we'll want to make this dynamic at some point
$this->Auth->loginRedirect = array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'index');
}
}
Then here is the user:
<?php
class User extends AppModel {
var $name = 'User';
// this is used by the auth component to turn the password into its hash before comparing with the DB
function hashPasswords($data) {
$data['User']['pass'] = crypt($data['User']['pass'], substr($data['User']['user'], 0, 2));
return $data;
}
}
?>
Everything else is normal, i think.
Here is a good resource: http://teknoid.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/demystifying-auth-features-in-cakephp-12/