Manually logging in a user without password

Question

I hope you can help me figure the best way to implement a manual (server-side initiated) login without using the password. Let me explain the workflow:

Answer 1

As of Django 1.10, the process has been simplified.

In all versions of Django, in order for a user to be logged in, they must be authenticated by one of your app's backends (controlled by the AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS setting).

If you simply want to force a login, you can just claim that the user was authenticated by the first backend from that list:

from django.conf import settings
from django.contrib.auth import login


# Django 1.10+
login(request, user, backend=settings.AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS[0])

# Django <1.10 -  fake the authenticate() call
user.backend = settings.AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS[0]
login(request, user)