Codeigniter 3 authentication app: loggedin state does not persist across pages - php

Question

I am working on a Codeigniter 3 authentication application. I am new to CI, so the problems are run into are "rookie" level.
The newest one is: if a user has signed in, even though he/she is redirected to the members area, the signed in state does not persist. Navigating to the home page (or on any another page) signs the user out.
Once the user is logged in, I don't want the login form page to be accessible.
The sessions library is globally loaded.
The user model is:
class Usermodel extends CI_Model {
public function user_login($email, $password)
{
$query = $this->db->get_where('users', array('email' => $email, 'password' => $password));
return $query->row();
}
}
The controller looks like this:
class Signin extends CI_Controller {
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
public function index()
{
$this->load->view('signin');
}
public function signin()
{
$this->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'Email', 'required|trim|valid_email');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'required');
$this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<p class="error">', '</p>');
if ($this->form_validation->run())
{
$email = $this->input->post('email');
$password = $this->input->post('password');
$this->load->model('Usermodel');
$current_user = $this->Usermodel->user_login($email, $password);
if ($current_user) {
$current_user_id = $this->session->userdata('user_id', $current_user->id);
$current_user_email = $this->session->userdata('email', $current_user->email);
redirect('home');
} else {
$this->session->set_flashdata("signin_failure", "Incorrect email or password");
$this->load->view('signin');
}
}
else
{
$this->load->view('signin');
}
}
}
The login form view:
<?php echo form_open('Signin/signin'); ?>
<div class="form-group <?php if(form_error('email')) echo 'has-error';?>">
<?php echo form_input(array(
'name' => 'email',
'id' => 'email',
'class' => 'form-control',
'autocomplete' => 'off',
'placeholder' => 'Email address'
));
if(form_error('email')) echo '<span class="glyphicon glyphicon-remove"></span>';
echo form_error('email'); ?>
</div>
<div class="form-group <?php if(form_error('password')) echo 'has-error';?>">
<?php echo form_password(array(
'name' => 'password',
'id' => 'password',
'class' => 'form-control',
'autocomplete' => 'off',
'placeholder' => 'Password'
));
if(form_error('password')) echo '<span class="glyphicon glyphicon-remove"></span>';
echo form_error('password'); ?>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<?php echo form_submit(array(
'name' => 'login',
'value' => 'Login',
'class' => 'btn btn-success btn-block'
)); ?>
</div>
<?php echo form_close(); ?>
Why is the loggedin state not kept? Thank you!
UPDATE
User Helper:
function is_logged_in() {
$CI =& get_instance();
$user = $CI->session->userdata('user_data');
return isset($user);
}
The navigation bar code:
<div id="navbar" class="collapse navbar-collapse">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
<?php if(is_logged_in()) : ?>
<li class="dropdown">
<a class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" href="#"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span> Hello, user
<span class="caret"></span></a>
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu">
<li>My contacts</li>
<li>All contacts</li>
<li>Signout</li>
</ul>
</li>
<?php else: ?>
<li><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-log-in"></span> Login</li>
<li><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span> Register</li>
<?php endif;?>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 1

Just after validating whether username and password matches, you have to set data in session, for that you need, small correction:
// if found in table, then save it session
// so that it can be accessible from elsewhere
if ($current_user) {
$this->session->set_userdata(
array(
'user_id' => $current_user->id
'email'=> $current_user->email
)
);
}
To check whether user logged in or not in all other controller, best way is to create helper, and call helper function to validate logged in user.
So for that in helpers directory, say you create file user_helper.php, with below code
<?php defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
function is_logged_in() {
$CI =& get_instance();
$user = $CI->session->userdata('user_data');
return isset($user);
}
Open file config/autoload.php and add your helper so that in all other controller you can it easily:
$autoload['helper'] = array('user');
So in any controller you can easily check whether user logged in or not like below
if(is_logged_in()){
// proceed authenticated
}else{
// redirect to signin page or somewhere else as per your wish
redirect('signin');
}
You said :
Once the user is logged in, I don't want the login form page to be
accessible.
So you need
public function signin()
{
if(is_logged_in()){
$this->session->set_flashdata('message_name', 'You already logged In');
//redirect to some function
redirect("controller/function_name");
}
// if not logged in then display form
// your other code goes here..
}
and in your view file where you redirect
echo $this->session->flashdata('message_name');

Answer 2

You Need to set userdata first.
change
$current_user_id = $this->session->userdata('user_id', $current_user->id);
$current_user_email = $this->session->userdata('email', $current_user->email);
to
$current_user_id = $this->session->set_userdata('user_id', $current_user->id);
$current_user_email = $this->session->set_userdata('email', $current_user->email);