Include db entry in session data when logging user in (CodeIgniter) - php

Question

What I'd like to do is on validating a CI user, when setting their session data, pull some data from a field set in the db.
At the moment I have this within my controller;
function validate()
{
$query = $this->model_auth->validate();
if ($query) // if the user's credentials validated
{
$data = array(
'username' => $this->input->post('username'),
'is_logged_in' => TRUE
);
$this->session->set_userdata($data);
redirect('dashboard/');
} else {
$data['error'] = 'Invalid User Id and Password combination';
$this->load->view('view_login',$data);
}
}
and this is my model
function validate() {
$this->db->where('username', $this->input->post('username'));
$this->db->where('password', md5($this->input->post('password')));
$query = $this->db->get('users');
if($query->num_rows == 1) { return TRUE; }
}//validate
What I'd like to do is set something like this;
$data = array(
'username' => $this->input->post('username'),
'user_level' => $ThisIsSomethingWithinTheDB,
'is_logged_in' => TRUE
);
Within my controller, with $ThisIsSomethingWithinTheDB relating to the relevant entry within the db under the user_level column.
I'm currently still very much learning as I go so any help would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

If you want to set something equal to something from your database you're going to have to retrieve it first.
I'm not too familiar going with CI's ActiveRecord as I prefer to use Laravel and Eloquent but from what I can tell looking at the docs:
$this->db->get('users')
... would be equivalent to:
SELECT * FROM users
and if that's the case, you should be able to set:
$data['user_level'] = $ThisIsSomethingWithinTheDB
or
$this->session->set_userdata('user_level') = $ThisIsSomethingWithinTheDB

Answer 2

Modify your validate() function, to return the DB results.
function validate()
{
$this->db->where('username', $this->input->post('username'));
$this->db->where('password', $this->input->post('password'));
$query = $this->db->get('users');
if ( $query->num_rows() > 0 )
{
$result = $query->result();
return $result[0];
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
Now, you can access the DB results, like this in your controller...
if ($query)
{
$data = array(
'username' => $this->input->post('username'),
'user_level' => $query->user_level, // This is "user_level" row from your DB
'is_logged_in' => true
);
}
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Thanks for your help both,
I was able to achieve this as follows;
model;
function validate() {
$this->db->where('username', $this->input->post('username'));
$this->db->where('password', md5($this->input->post('password')));
$query = $this->db->get('users');
if($query->num_rows == 1)
{
return $query;
}
else
{
return FALSE;
}
}
Controller;
function validate()
{
$query = $this->model_auth->validate();
if ($query) // if the user's credentials validated
{
$user_data = $query->row();
$data = array(
'username' => $this->input->post('username'),
'user_level' => $user_data->user_level,
'is_logged_in' => TRUE
);
$this->session->set_userdata($data);
redirect('dashboard/');
} else {
$data['error'] = 'Invalid User Id and Password combination';
$this->load->view('view_login',$data);
}
}
Thanks again for your help!