Session doesn't get stored permanently Laravel 5.5 - php

Question

I am creating a small blog-esque site. This site has basically 3 permission levels: Admin (can edit/remove any post AND create a user), a user (can upload posts and pictures) and a guest (no account needed, can just browse the posts).
I am using Laravel 5.5 to create this site.
When someone logs in, after being authenticated, I store their username and user type (admin/user) in a session and after login, they are redirected to their respective pages, as shown in the below code.
I overrided the 'authenticated' method in the AuthenticatesUsers trait:
LoginController.php
protected function authenticated(Request $request, $user)
{
$type = $user->toArray()['type'];//get user type (admin/user)
$username = $user->toArray()['username'];
$request->session()->put('type', $type);
$request->session()->put('username', $username);
if ( $type == 'admin' ) {
return redirect()->route('admin_home');
}
return redirect()->route('user_home');
}
The above code works and my user is redirected upon successful login.
However, if my user accesses the site home (localhost:8000/) I want the user to see the admin home page or user home page (localhost:8000/ just shows the homepage for a not logged in guest)
I did that using the following codes:
Web.php
Route::get('/', 'ContentController#publicHome');
Route::middleware('auth')->group(function(){
Route::get('/user/home', 'ContentController#userHome')->name('user_home');
Route::get('/admin/home', 'ContentController#adminHome')->name('admin_home');
});
Filtering whether user is logged in or just a guest:
ContentController - publicHome function
public function publicHome(Request $request){
$data = [];
$data['home'] = 1;
if($request->session()->has('type')){
switch ($request->session()->pull('type')){
case 'admin':
return redirect()->route('admin_home');
case 'user':
return redirect()->route('user_home');
}
}
return view('public.home', $data);
}
ContentController - userHome function
public function userHome(Request $request){
$data = [];
$data['username'] = $this->getUsername($request);
$data['type'] = $this->getUserType($request);
// dd($data); explanation for this line below
return view('user.home', $data);
}
ContentController - adminHome function
public function adminHome(Request $request){
$data = [];
$data['username'] = $this->getUsername($request);
$data['type'] = $this->getUserType($request);
//dd($data);
return view('admin.home', $data);
}
ContentController - getUsername & getUserType functions
public function getUsername(Request $request){
return $request->session()->has('username') ? $request->session()->pull('username') : 'username not set';
}
public function getUserType(Request $request){
return $request->session()->has('type') ? $request->session()->pull('type') : 'user type not set';
}
I used the dump and die function to see the $data[] array before loading the view
Right after successful login:
array:2 [▼
"username" => "testAdmin"
"type" => "admin"
] //works correctly, session variables seem to be set
So when I type in localhost:8000/ I expect to be redirected to /admin/home (or /user/home depending on login) but I just get sent to localhost:8000/ as if I am not logged in. So now when I manually type in /admin/home I get the following dump and die output:
array:2 [▼
"username" => "username not set"
"type" => "user type not set"
]

Answer 1

If you are using $request->session()->pull('username') it fetches the data i.e. username from session and deletes it at the same time.
Instead, you can use laravel's helper method session() to get data without deleting it. So now you can use session('username') to get the username.
For more info refer : https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/session
Some Suggestions:
You could have used laravel's internal Auth library to build the login system which already has lot many features you don't need to code again. https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/authentication
You can also have multi-user authentication (admin & regular user). Refer this link if you want to implement so: https://scotch.io/tutorials/user-authorization-in-laravel-54-with-spatie-laravel-permission