use ion auth authentication for codeigniter in another controller

Question

I am trying to build a web application with codeigniter. I have installed Ion Auth as my authentication model.

The default Auth.php controller authenticates the user and sets up the session.

<?php defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Auth extends CI_Controller {



    function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load->library('ion_auth');
        $this->load->library('session');
        $this->load->library('form_validation');
        $this->load->helper('url');

        $data['title']="Login Page";
        $this->load->view("view_site_header",$data);

        // Load MongoDB library instead of native db driver if required
        $this->config->item('use_mongodb', 'ion_auth') ?
        $this->load->library('mongo_db') :

        $this->load->database();    

        $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters($this->config->item('error_start_delimiter', 'ion_auth'), $this->config->item('error_end_delimiter', 'ion_auth'));
    }

    //redirect if needed, otherwise display the user list
    function index()
    {
        // if not logged in - go to home page
        if (!$this->ion_auth->logged_in())
        {
            //redirect them to the login page
            redirect('auth/login', 'refresh');
        }
        // if user is an admin go to this page
        elseif ($this->ion_auth->is_admin())
        {
            // if an admin, go to admin area

            //set the flash data error message if there is one
            $this->data['message'] = (validation_errors()) ? validation_errors() : $this->session->flashdata('message');

            //list the users
            $this->data['users'] = $this->ion_auth->users()->result();
            foreach ($this->data['users'] as $k => $user)
            {
                $this->data['users'][$k]->groups = $this->ion_auth->get_users_groups($user->id)->result();
            }

            $this->_render_page('auth/view_users', $this->data);                
        }   else
    {
        //redirect them to the default home page 
        $data['title']="IMS Home Page";
        $this->load->view("generic/view_site_header",$data);
        $this->load->view("generic/view_generic_nav");
        $this->load->view("generic/view_content_generic");
        $this->load->view("view_site_footer");
    }
}

what I want to do is create a new controller for my application logic and leave the auth controller for authentication.

How can I make use of the auth controller to ensure my user is logged in when accessing my new controller? in addition I need the ession information to be available to the new controller.

my new controller, master_data has the following code:

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Masterdata extends CI_Controller{

    function index ()
    {
            $data['title']="Master Data Home Page";
            $this->load->view("master_data/view_master_data_header",$data);
            $this->load->view("master_data/view_master_data_nav");
            $this->load->view("master_data/view_content_master_data_home");
            $this->load->view("master_data/view_master_data_footer");

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



    }
}

obviously the echo $this->session->userdata('username'); does not work as the new controller has no knowledge of the auth controller session.

any help appreciated as always.

Kind Regards,

Answer 1

First autoload the ion_auth library. If u simply want to check if the user is logged-in, just check it in every controller's constructor u load

public function __construct() {  
    parent::__construct();

    if (!$this->ion_auth->logged_in()) {
       // redirect to login view
    } 
}

If u happen to have multiple groups , u can create a new controller inside application/core/MY_controller.This controller will check whether user is logged in.You can extend this base controller to create new controller.A very good explanation on this is given by David john.Check this link .