Question

I have a function that I found that was wrote to use PDO, I modified it to use codeigniters active record db class. Everything work EXCEPT when I place the code within a function like so:

    function login_attempt_count() {

      $seconds = 10;
         // First we delete old attempts from the table 
      $oldest1 = strtotime(date('Y-m-d H:i:s').' - '.$seconds.' seconds');
      $oldest2 = date('Y-m-d H:i:s',$oldest1);
      $del_data = $oldest2;
      $this->db->where('when <', $del_data);
      $this->db->delete('Login_Attempts');
        // Next we insert this attempt into the table
      $data = array(
      'ip' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'],
      'when' => date("Y-m-d H:i:s"));
      $this->db->insert('Login_Attempts', $data);

        // Finally we count the number of recent attempts from this ip address 
      $count = 'SELECT count(*) as number FROM Login_Attempts WHERE ip = ?';
      $num = $this->db->query($count, $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
      if ($num->num_rows() > 0){
        foreach($num->result() as $attempt){
          $attempts = $attempt->number;
            return $attempts;
        }
      }
 }   

using it like this:

    $max_attempts = 3;

    if(login_attempt_count() <= $max_attempts) {
        echo 'login';
    }else{
        echo 'To many attempts';
    } 

or this:

 $a = login_attempt_count();

Causes the rest of the page to not load. So this indicates an error.
Again if I use the code within the function, outside the function, it works as expected.

Or if there is a completely better and more secure method that I should be using I am open for suggestions. Thanks!

Answer 1

Ok here I am answering my own question. 😉 The function works fine! However, testing it in a view causes an error? After placing the function within my model and calling the function within my controller works great. Using it like so:

class Auth extends CI_Controller{

   function login(){

   $max_attempts = 3;
        if($this->auth_model->login_attempt_count() <= $max_attempts) {
          //Do something
        }else{
          //Something else
        } 
   }//End Function
}//End Class