Question

When a user logs in they are directed to my log in function — Here is my partially working code. I commented out the parts that I need help with.

model

    if ($query->num_rows() == 1)
    { 
        return $query->row()->f_name;
    }   
        
    else {
        return false;
    }

}

controller

    if($this->form_validation->run()) {
    $f_name = $this->model_users->can_log_in();
        $data = array(
            'email' => $this->input->post('email'),
            'is_logged_in' => 1,
            'name' => $f_name
            );
            
        $this->session->set_userdata($data);
        
        redirect('account_dashboard');  

The user’s name is in the database table with their email/pw. I want to get the users f_name and set it in the session when they log in since the session is a global var.

view

my header shows their name:

echo $this->session->userdata('name'); 

How do I get db_values from the table and pass them along to the session?

Answer 1

When you call $query->row(), it will return the first row from the query results as an object. So, if you need to return the user’s first name, which in this case is stored under the f_name field, you’ll want to write this:

return $query->row()->f_name;

Then in your controller, you’ll have the first name returned from the model function.

$f_name = $this->model_name->model_function_name();
$data = array('email' => $this->input->post('email'),
              'is_logged_in' => 1,
              'name' => $f_name
);

In case you need more than just the user’s first name in your controller, return the whole row from the model function instead.

return $query->row();

Then in your, controller you can access the returned object (or array if you use row_array()), by accessing its properties which will be named based on the fields’ name in the database table.

$user = $this->model_name->model_function_name();
$f_name = $user->f_name; // Get the user's first name
$other = $user->other; // Get some other information

It works the same way too for row_array(), but of course, you’ll need to do something like $user['f_name'] instead of $user->f_name.

EDIT: Also, make sure the model is loaded by the controller, before you try to call its functions.

$this->load->model('model_name');