CODEWITHSUNDEEP
yii
keeg
keeg

Reputation: 3978

CWebUser and CUserIdentity

I'm building an authentication module for my application and I don't quite understand the relation between CWebUser and CUserIdentity.

To set the user id to Yii::app()->user->id I have to do that in my UserIdentity class and create a method:

public function getId() {
    return $this->_id;
}

But to set isAdmin to Yii::app()->user->isAdmin I have to create a method in my WebUser class:

function getIsAdmin() {
    $user = $this->loadUser(Yii::app()->user->id);
    return intval($user->user_level_id) == AccountModule::USER_LEVEL_ADMIN;
}

Why can't I just create the methods the UserIdentity class? What is the division of labour here?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3930

Answers (3)

Racky
Racky

Reputation: 1183

And what is the benefit of using all those classes? I can do everything just by User model. If I set scenario "login", password will be checked during validation. If validation is OK, I can set to session my own variable like this:

$model = new User("login");
$model->attributes = $_POST["User"];
if ($model->validate())
{
  Yii::app()->session["currentUser"] = $model;
}
else
{
  // .. show error
  unset(Yii::app()->session["currentUser"]);
}

In User model I have then static methods to check this variable

public static function isGuest()
{
  return isset(Yii::app()->session["currentUser"]);
}

public static function getCurrent()
{
  return Yii::app()->session["currentUser"];
}

And I can call it very shortly:

User::isGuest();
$model = User::getCurrent();
// instead of writing this:
Yii::app()->user->isGuest;

So why should I use so complicated hierarchy of classes that is suggested by Yii? I never understood it.

Upvotes: 2

JohnnyQ
JohnnyQ

Reputation: 5119

I like how the accepted answer used real life examples to make it easier to understand. However, I also like how Chris explained it here with example.

User information is stored in an instance of the CWebUser class and this is created on application initialisation (ie: when the User first connects with the website), irrespective of whether the user is logged in or not. By default, the user is set to “ Guest”. Authentication is managed by a class called CUserIdentity and this class checks that the user is known and a valid user. How this validation occurs will depend on your application, perhaps against a database, or login with facebook, or against an ldap server etc...

Upvotes: 2

Paystey
Paystey

Reputation: 3242

The UserIdentity (UI) class is like an ID card, where as the WebUser class is the actual person plus everything you know about them.

The UI class gives you authentication via database, webservices, textfile, whatever. It lets you know what the key attributes are and allows you to manipulate them. The user however can give you more information about what they're allowed to do, there names, granular permissions and such.

OK, end metaphor

The UI class holds the key information, so when asking for the users ID it will refer to the User Identity class to get the Identifier for the user.

Anything that isn't related to identifying or authenticating a user is in the WebUser class

Clear it up at all?

Your example

You gave the getId function as an example, but that can be created on WebUser to override the default, which is to pull from the state.

So not sure what you mean here.

Upvotes: 5

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