`yii\web\User::loginRequired()` now returns the `Response` object instead of exiting the application

framework/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ Yii Framework 2 Change Log
 - Enh: Added `Widget::autoIdPrefix` to support prefixing automatically generated widget IDs (qiangxue)
 - Enh: Support for file aliases in console command 'message' (omnilight)
 - Enh: Sort and Pagination can now create absolute URLs (cebe)
+- Chg #1519: `yii\web\User::loginRequired()` now returns the `Response` object instead of exiting the application (qiangxue)
 - Chg #1586: `QueryBuilder::buildLikeCondition()` will now escape special characters and use percentage characters by default (qiangxue)
 - Chg #1610: `Html::activeCheckboxList()` and `Html::activeRadioList()` will submit an empty string if no checkbox/radio is selected (qiangxue)
 - Chg #1643: Added default value for `Captcha::options` (qiangxue)

framework/yii/web/User.php

@@ -320,6 +320,8 @@ class User extends Component
 	 * so that the user browser can be redirected to the specified login URL after
 	 * calling this method.
 	 * After calling this method, the current request processing will be terminated.
+	 * @return Response the redirection response if [[loginUrl]] is set
+	 * @throws AccessDeniedHttpException the "Access Denied" HTTP exception if [[loginUrl]] is not set
 	 */
 	public function loginRequired()
 	{
@@ -328,8 +330,7 @@ class User extends Component
 			$this->setReturnUrl($request->getUrl());
 		}
 		if ($this->loginUrl !== null) {
-			Yii::$app->getResponse()->redirect($this->loginUrl)->send();
-			exit();
+			return Yii::$app->getResponse()->redirect($this->loginUrl);
 		} else {
 			throw new AccessDeniedHttpException(Yii::t('yii', 'Login Required'));
 		}