How to show other columns in php session - php

Question

I am trying to extract other user info when I log in. I have managed to enable myself to login using my email address and password but I am struggling to show my first/last name etc.
I am logging in like so:
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_email = '". $email ."' AND user_password = '". $password ."'" ;
$result = mysqli_query($con, $query);
if (mysqli_num_rows($result) == 1) {
$_SESSION['user_email'] = $email;
header('Location: dashboard.php');
} else {
echo 'fail!';
}
Then in my header I have:
session_start();
if( !isset($_SESSION['user_email']) ){
header('Location: index.php');
exit();
} else{
$email = $_SESSION['user_email'];
echo 'Logged in';
}
But fi I try to echo out user_firstname or user_lastname it fails of course I am just not sure where this gets set?

Answer 1

You need to use read a row from the query, then set session variables from that.
if (mysqli_num_rows($result) == 1) {
$_SESSION['user_email'] = $email;
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);
$_SESSION['user_firstname'] = $row['user_firstname'];
$_SESSION['user_lastname'] = $row['user_lastname'];
header('Location: dashboard.php');
} else {
echo 'fail!';
}
You can print the session variables in the header.
session_start();
if( !isset($_SESSION['user_email']) ){
header('Location: index.php');
exit();
} else{
$email = $_SESSION['user_email'];
echo 'Hello, ' . $_SESSION['user_firstname'];
}
You could also just put the entire row into the session:
$_SESSION['user_data'] = $row;
Then you can use $_SESSION['user_data']['user_firstname'] to get specific fields.