django authenticate with email

Django provides a built-in authentication system that allows users to authenticate using their email instead of the default username. Here are the steps to authenticate with email in Django:

  1. First, you need to create a custom authentication backend that extends Django's ModelBackend. This backend will handle the authentication logic for email-based authentication.

  2. In the custom authentication backend, you need to override the authenticate method. This method takes the request object and the email and password as arguments. Inside this method, you will query the user model using the provided email and check if the password matches. If it does, you will return the user object.

  3. If the user is successfully authenticated, you need to set the user object in the request object using the login method. This will persist the authentication across different requests.

  4. To enable the custom authentication backend, you need to update the AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS setting in your Django project's settings file. Add the path to your custom authentication backend in the list of backends.

  5. Now, you can use Django's built-in login view to handle the login process. In your login view, you need to pass the email and password to the authentication backend's authenticate method. If the authentication is successful, you can redirect the user to the desired page.

By following these steps, you can authenticate users using their email in Django. This allows for a more user-friendly approach to authentication, as users can use their email address, which is easier to remember, instead of a username.