Checking if user is logged in using CakePHP

Question

I want to display a different navigation bar to my users based on if they're logged in or not. I have handled the registration and logging in stage, but having trouble checking if the users are logged in and displaying the correct navigation bar.

This is what I have in AppController.php:

public $components = array('Session', 'Auth' => array(
    'loginRedirect' => array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'account'),
    'logoutRedirect' => array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'home')
));

public $loggedIn = false;

public function beforeFilter() {
    $this->Auth->allow('home', 'register', 'login');
    if ($this->Auth->user('id')) {
        $this->set('loggedIn', true);
    }
}

and then in my layout (not view):

<?php if ($loggedIn): ?>
    logged in
<?php else: ?>
    <li class="right"><a href="/register">Register</a></li>
    <li class="right"><a href="/login">Login</a></li>
<?php endif; ?>

However, $loggedIn is always false. If do $this->set('loggedIn', $this->loggedIn); from within my individual controllers it works fine, but in an attempt to keep my code DRY I only want it in the controller that all my other controllers inherit from (AppController).

Is there an easy way to do this that i'm missing?

Answer 1

I know this has already been answered but I will post my findings anyway..

The way I solved this issue and made $loggedIn globally available was adding it to the AppController.php file in beforeFilter()

public function beforeFilter() {
    $this->set('loggedIn', $this->Auth->loggedIn());
}

Answer 2

Try using:

if ($this->Auth->loggedIn()) {