CodeIgniter - username and email existence check doesn't work - php

Question

I'm trying to check whether or not an email or username exists in the database before inserting data into the database. For a reason I do not understand, despite using the email_exists and username_exists functions, when inserting the data, the database throws a field not unique error for username and email fields.
The username_exists and email_exists functions gets any usernames or emails where they match the username or email submitted by the form. The functions then return true if there is a username or email that exists, or false if the opposite. When both functions return false (i.e. username and email don't exist in the database) it inserts the form data into the database.
Any help would be great!
Controller Function
public function register(){
if($this->session->userdata('loggedIn') == TRUE){
$this->session->set_flashdata('error_msg', 'please log out to access this page ');
echo 'Please log out to access this page!...';
sleep(2);
redirect('index.php/user/dashboard');
}
$data['session_data'] = array(
'userID' => $this->session->userdata('userID'),
'loggedIn' => $this->session->userdata('loggedID')
);
$this->load->view('navigation');
$this->load->view('register', $data);
echo 'registration page - ';
if($this->input->post('register')){
$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'username', 'required');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'email', 'required|valid_email');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'password', 'required');
$user_details = array(
'username' => strip_tags($this->input->post('username')),
'email' => strip_tags($this->input->post('email')),
'password' => strip_tags($this->input->post('password'))
);
if($this->form_validation->run() == true){
$username_exists = $this->user_model->username_exists($user_details[0]);
$email_exists = $this->user_model->email_exists($user_details[1]);
if($username_exists == false && $email_exists == false) {
$this->user_model->add_user_account($user_details);
echo 'user added successfully: '. $user_details[0];
$this->session->set_flashdata('success_msg', 'SUCCESSFULLY ADDED USER, username and email do not already exist!... ');
sleep(2);
redirect('index.php/user/login');
} else {
echo 'username or email already exists! try again!...';
$this->session->set_flashdata('error_msg', 'ERROR OCCURRED - username or email exists!...');
sleep(2);
redirect('index.php/user/register');
}
} else {
echo 'error occured, try again!...';
$this->session->set_flashdata('error_msg', 'ERROR OCCURRED- something didn\'t work');
sleep(2);
redirect('index.php/user/register');
}
}
}
Model Functions
public function add_user_account($user_details){
$this->db->insert('user_account', $user_details);
}
public function username_exists($username){
$this->db->select('username');
$this->db->from('user_account');
$this->db->where('username', $username);
$query = $this->db->get();
if($query->num_rows() > 0){
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
public function email_exists($email){
$this->db->select('email');
$this->db->from('user_account');
$this->db->where('email', $email);
$query = $this->db->get();
if($query->num_rows() > 0){
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}

Answer 1

$user_details[0] doesn't reference anything as you have non-numerical keys for the user_details array. I assume you mean to access the key username thus you should do $user_details['username'].
Like so:
$username_exists = $this->user_model->username_exists($user_details['username']);
$email_exists = $this->user_model->email_exists($user_details['email']);
To be honest I'm surprised this isn't giving you notice errors.
Further, you could easily make your username/email exists functions into a callback or simply use the is_unique feature of the form_validation library.
Also I'm pretty sure that you can apply strip_tags as a form_validation rule and it will remove the tags in the post variables.

Answer 2

Well to address your question via a means of simplification, you can use is_unique[table.field] as a validation rule.
That way you do not need to write any model methods for checking that your username or email is unique.
So in your form validation rules you can alter your username and email rules to include the is_unique rule.
$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'required|is_unique[user_account.username]');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'Email', 'required|valid_email|is_unique[user_account.email]');
Note: The 2nd Field is the Form Label and can be anything. In this case I uppercased it. The 1st field IS case sensitive.
As to why your existing code isn't working...
Try getting friendly using var_dump(); or print_r();
i.e.
$username_exists = $this->user_model->username_exists($user_details[0]);
$email_exists = $this->user_model->email_exists($user_details[1]);
// Debug these two and see what they are...
var_dump($username_exists);
var_dump($email_exists);
Now seeing you are using an associative array in setting up
$user_details = array(
'username' => strip_tags($this->input->post('username')),
'email' => strip_tags($this->input->post('email')),
'password' => strip_tags($this->input->post('password'))
);
And then referencing them like
$username_exists = $this->user_model->username_exists($user_details[0]);
Using the above var_dump's should give you an "Aha!!!" moment.
When in doubt var_dump();