CodeIgniter: checking if user logged in for multiple pages

Question

I have a controller, which maps to section of my site and all of the pages within it (methods) should only appear if the user is logged in. Otherwise they should be redirect

Answer 1

Best way to deal such issue is to create a custom helper that should be called in every method of controller class e.g Go to application/helpers and create a file login_helper.php Paste the following code in the helper

<?php
 defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('no direct access');

 function isLogin($sessionType)
 {
   if(empty($_SESSION[$sessionType]))
         redirect(base_url('loginURL'));
 }

?>

Now load this helper into Controller's constructor.

application/controllers/Access.php

this way

defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('access denied');
class Access Extends CI_Controller
{
  funcrion __construct()
  {
    parent::__construct();
    $this->load->helper('login');
  }
  function home()
  {
    isLogin();
    $this->load->view('home_page);
  }
}

Answer 2

For codeIgniter 3 I modified Wesley Murch's answer to this

// Create file application/core/MY_Controller.php

<?php 
defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller {

function __construct()
{
    parent::__construct();
    $CI = & get_instance();
    $CI->load->library('session');
    $CI->load->helper('url');
    if ( !$this->session->userdata('logged_in'))
    { 
        redirect('login');
    }
}

}

Then in any controller to check authorization I used

class News extends MY_Controller { //code here }

If you use modules and different sessions for website users and admin users, you can use this code to perfectly redirect them to different login pages-

function __construct() {
    parent::__construct();
    $CI = & get_instance();
    $CI->load->library('session');
    $CI->load->helper('url');
   // echo "<pre>";print_r($this->router);echo "</pre>";

    /**
     * if webmaster then check admin session else check user session
     * But there may be some classes's method that doesn't requires login hence it is also need to check if
     * current request is for those methods before checking session
     */
    //to use $this->config->item('webmaster_name') this you have to define 
    // $config['webmaster_name'] = "webmaster"; in config.php file

    if ($this->router->module == $this->config->item('webmaster_name')) {
        if (!$this->session->userdata('admin')['id']) {
            redirect($this->config->item('webmaster_name').'/login');
        }
    } else {
        if (!$this->session->userdata('user')['id']) {
            redirect('login');
        }
    }
}

If you also want users to allow to access some methods from any particular controller without being logged in you can use this code -

function __construct() {
    parent::__construct();
    $CI = & get_instance();
    $CI->load->library('session');
    $CI->load->helper('url');

    //echo "<pre>"; print_r($this->router);echo "</pre>"; //_pr($this->config->item('excluded_auth'));
    /**
     * if webmaster then check admin session else check user session
     * But there may be some classes's method that doesn't requires login hence it is also need to check if
     * current request is for those methods before checking session
     */
    if ($this->router->module == $this->config->item('webmaster_name')) {
        if (!$this->session->userdata('admin')['id']) {
            redirect($this->config->item('webmaster_name') . '/login');
        }
    } else {
        if (array_key_exists($this->router->class, $this->config->item('exclude_auth')) && in_array($this->router->method, $this->config->item('exclude_auth')[$this->router->class])) {
            //echo "escape this method. don not validate for a session";
        } else {
            if (!$this->session->userdata('user')['id']) {
                redirect('login');
            }
        }
    }
}

Note: You can define a custom config file for defining your excluded methods like as-

//save file in application/config/without_auth_methods.php

<?php
     defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
     $config['exclude_auth']['news']       = array('index', 'view');
     $config['exclude_auth']['users']      = array('index');

Answer 3

I use this function:

Then just call $this->isAuthorized from your controllers __construct.

It allows me to control what controllers are accessed and what methods are accessed too.

protected function isAuthorized()
{

    switch ( strtolower( $this->router->class ) )
    {
        case 'pages':
            $disallowLoggedOut = array( 'dashboard' );
            $disallowLoggedIn = array( 'index' );
        break;

        case 'users':
            $disallowLoggedOut = array( 'logout' );
            $disallowLoggedIn = array( 'register', 'login' );
        break;
    }

    if ( $this->session->userdata( 'loggedIn' ) ) 
    {       
        if ( in_array( $this->router->method, $disallowLoggedIn ) )
        {
            redirect( 'pages/dashboard' );
        }
    }
    else
    {       
        if ( in_array( $this->router->method, $disallowLoggedOut ) )
        {
            redirect( 'pages/index' );
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

You can run code in every method of a Controller by running it in the __construct() method:

function __construct()
{
    parent::__construct();
    if ( ! $this->session->userdata('logged_in'))
    { 
        // Allow some methods?
        $allowed = array(
            'some_method_in_this_controller',
            'other_method_in_this_controller',
        );
        if ( ! in_array($this->router->fetch_method(), $allowed)
        {
            redirect('login');
        }
    }
}

You can remove the "allowed" bits if you want to restrict access to the whole thing, but there are better ways to do this, like creating a base controller:

// Create file application/core/MY_Controller.php
class Auth_Controller extends CI_Controller {

    function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        if ( ! $this->session->userdata('logged_in'))
        { 
            redirect('login');
        }
    }
}

Then have your restricted controllers extend Auth_Controller instead of CI_Controller. Now your code will be run every time the controller is loaded.

More info on extending core classes: http://www.codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/core_classes.html#extending-core-class

Also of interest: http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.decon.php