Sometimes we (administrator/manager of website) need access to the user account to check the features on the user's side who are having problems. Even though the admin/manager has access to the database or system, in certain cases there are users who experience problems with their account and can only be checked from the related user account.

This code is useful for doing this by log into the user account without having to know the user's password. And easily return to the admin account without having to logout first.

1. Copy app folder into your project folder

2. Edit your app/Http/Kernel.php and add this following code to the $middlewareGroups property

protected $middlewareGroups = [
        'web' => [
            \\ Other middlewares
            \App\Http\Middleware\Impersonator::class,
        ],
        ....

3. Add this example routes to your routes/web.php

// Other routes

Route::get('/admin/impersonate/{user_id}', 'ImpersonatorController@impersonate');
Route::get('/impersonator/rollback', 'ImpersonatorController@rollback');

To start impersonating user account:

You need to login to the Admin account that has admin role, then access https://yourdomain.com/admin/impersonate/123, where 123 is the id of target user account. Now you are logged in as target user.

To back to the admin account:

Access https://yourdomain.com/impersonator/rollback

In the app/Http/Controllers/ImpersonatorController.php @ impersonate, make sure you check whether the current user has admin rights. In the code we use an example from Spatie Laravel Permission to check whether the current user has an admin role. If you use another package, you need to adjust the code with your package.