CodeIgniter 4: Call to member function on null where post request is valid in var_dump() - forms

Question

** Very new to CodeIgniter so please be kind! **
I have an issue with my two user authentication forms: users/register.php and users/login.php where I cannot pass the post input to functions in my model.
As of now, I'm getting the error Call to member function addUser() on null on the registration form and a validation error on the login form that states the username/password don't match any credentials in the database. Both seem to stem from post being null although it is not.
I have done a var_dump on $login which is defined as $login = $this->request->getPost() as well as inspected the request in Firefox Developers Browser to find all the post data correctly displayed. I am stumped. Why can't I pass this array to my model?
Here is a screenshot of the post request for login.php (the same can be said for registration.php and is not included).
These are my routes:
// Login and Registration
$routes->match(['get', 'post'], 'users/register', 'Users::register');
$routes->match(['get', 'post'], 'users/login', 'Users::login', ["filter" => "noauth"]);
Here is my model UserModel.php in its entirety:
class UserModel extends Model
{
protected $DBGroup = 'default';
protected $table = 'users';
protected $primaryKey = 'username';
protected $useAutoIncrement = false;
protected $insertID = 0;
protected $returnType = 'object';
protected $useSoftDelete = false;
protected $allowedFields = [
'username',
'password',
'id',
'role',
'profile_image',
'profile_views',
'last_login',
'about_me',
'age',
'gender',
'occupation',
'hometown',
'country',
'fav_shape',
'fav_color',
'created',
'modified',
];
// Dates
protected $useTimestamps = true;
protected $dateFormat = 'datetime';
protected $createdField = 'created';
protected $modifiedField = 'modified';
// Callbacks
protected $allowCallbacks = true;
protected $beforeInsert = ['beforeInsert'];
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
protected function beforeInsert(array $data)
{
$data = $this->passwordHash($data);
return $data;
}
protected function passwordHash(array $data)
{
if (isset($data['password'])) {
$data['password'] = password_hash($data['password'], PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
}
return $data;
}
public function lastLogin($username)
{
$this->builder()
->where('username', $username)
->update('last_login', date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
}
public function addUser($newUser)
{
$builder = $this->builder()
->set($newUser)
->insert();
if ($builder->affected_rows() == 1) {
return TRUE;
} else {
return FALSE;
}
}
public function getUser($username)
{
$builder = $this->builder()
->where(['username' => $username])
->limit(1);
if ($builder->countAllResults() === 1) {
return $builder->get()->getRow();
} else {
return FALSE;
}
}
}
Here are excerpts from my controller Users.php:
class Users extends BaseController
{
protected $userModel;
public function __construct()
{
$userModel = new UserModel();
}
public function login()
{
$validation = \Config\Services::validation();
// Set session variable
$session = session();
if ($this->request->getMethod() === 'post' && ! empty($_POST)) {
$validation->getRuleGroup('login');
$validation->setRuleGroup('login');
$validation->withRequest($this->request)->run();
$recaptchaResponse = trim($this->request->getVar('g-recaptcha-response'));
$userIp = $this->request->getIPAddress();
$secret = env('recaptcha2_secretkey');
$credential = [
'secret' => $secret,
'response' => $recaptchaResponse,
'remoteip' => $userIp,
];
$verify = curl_init();
curl_setopt($verify, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify');
curl_setopt($verify, CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
curl_setopt($verify, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($credential));
curl_setopt($verify, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($verify, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
$response = curl_exec($verify);
$status = json_decode($response, TRUE);
curl_close($verify);
if (empty($validation->getErrors()) && $status['success']) {
$login = $this->request->getPost();
$user = $this->userModel->getUser($login['username']);
// Storing session values
$this->setUserSession($user);
// Storing success message
$session->setFlashdata('success', 'You have successfully logged in!');
// Update last login datetime
$this->userModel->lastLogin($login['username']);
// Redirecting to dashboard after login
if ($user['role'] == 1) {
return redirect()->to('admin/dashboard');
} elseif ($user['role'] == 0) {
return redirect()->to('members/dashboard');
}
} else {
$data = [
'title' => 'Login',
'errors' => $validation->getErrors(),
];
echo view('templates/index_header', $data);
echo view('users/login');
echo view('templates/footer', $data);
}
} else {
$data = [
'title' => 'Login',
];
echo view('templates/index_header', $data);
echo view('users/login');
echo view('templates/footer', $data);
}
}
/**
* Sets session with user id, username, isLoggedIn, and role for use in member/admin site
* #param model user data
* #return boole if session was set successfully
*/
private function setUserSession($user)
{
$data = [
'id' => $user->id,
'username' => $user->username,
'profile_image' => $user->profile_image,
'isLoggedIn' => true,
'role' => $user->role,
];
if (session()->set($data)) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
public function register()
{
$validation = \Config\Services::validation();
if ($this->request->getMethod() == 'post' && ! empty($_POST)) {
$validation->getRuleGroup('registration');
$validation->setRuleGroup('registration');
$validation->withRequest($this->request)->run();
if (empty($validation->getErrors())) {
$newUser = $this->request->getPost();
if ($this->userModel->addUser($newUser)) {
$this->session->setFlashdata('success', 'Successful Registration');
$data['title'] = 'Login';
echo view('templates/index_header', $data);
echo view('users/login');
echo view('templates/footer', $data);
} else {
$this->session->setFlashdata('error', 'Something went wrong with your registration! Please try again.');
}
} else {
$data = [];
$data = [
'title' => 'Register',
'script' => 'js/click_link',
'errors' => $validation->getErrors(),
];
echo view('templates/index_header', $data);
echo view('users/register', $data);
echo view('templates/footer', $data);
}
} else {
$data = [
'title' => 'Register',
'script' => 'js/click_link',
];
echo view('templates/index_header', $data);
echo view('users/register', $data);
echo view('templates/footer', $data);
}
}
}
These are my validation rules in Config\Validation:
/**
* Registration
*/
public $registration = [
'username' => 'required|is_unique[users.username,username]|min_length[5]|max_length[25]|alpha_dash|badWordsFilter[username]',
'password' => 'required|min_length[8]|max_length[255]|regex_match[/^(?=.*[!##$%^&*-])(?=.*[0-9])(?=.*[A-Z]).{8,255}$/]',
'pass_confirm' => 'required|matches[password]',
'about_me' => 'permit_empty|max_length[250]|alpha_numeric_punct|badWordsFilter[about_me]',
'occupation' => 'permit_empty|max_length[50]|alpha_space|badWordsFilter[occupation]',
'hometown' => 'permit_empty|max_length[50]|alpha_space|badWordsFilter[hometown]',
'age' => 'permit_empty|less_than[100]|greater_than[0]|numeric',
'country' => 'permit_empty',
];
/**
* Password Verification
*/
public $login = [
'password' => 'required|validateUser[username,password]',
];
This is my custom rule to authenticate username and password credentials User_rules:
class User_rules
{
/**
* Checks if input username exists in database and then checks whether the input password matches the hash for that username
* #param string $str is the input password
* #param string $fields are the associated form fields that are being used
* #param array $data is an array containing the values for the fields indexed by field names
* #return boolean true or false depending on if the user exists and the password matches the hashed password stored in the database
*/
public function validateUser(string $str, string $fields, array $data)
{
$userModel = new UserModel();
$user = $userModel->getUser($data['username']);
if(!$user) {
return FALSE;
}
return password_verify($data['password'], $user->password);
}
Lastly, my view for login.php:
<div class='form-container'>
<?= form_open('users/login',['autocomplete' => FALSE]); ?>
<div class='form-header'>
<h2>Login</h2>
</div>
<div class='form-body'>
<div class='form-row'>
<div class='input-container'>
<i class='fas fa-user'></i>
<?php $attributes = [
'type' => 'text',
'name' => 'username',
'class' => 'input-field',
'id' => 'username',
'placeholder' => 'Username',
'required' => TRUE,
]; ?>
<?= form_input($attributes); ?>
</div>
</div>
<div class='form-row'>
<div class='input-container'>
<i class='fas fa-lock'></i>
<?php $attributes = [
'type' => 'password',
'name' => 'password',
'class' => 'input-field',
'placeholder' => 'Password',
'required' => TRUE,
]; ?>
<?= form_input($attributes); ?>
</div`>
</div>
</div>
<div class='captcha-container'>
<div class='g-recaptcha' data-sitekey='<?= env('recaptcha2_sitekey'); ?>'></div>
</div>
<div class='form-footer'>
<?php $submit = [
'name' => 'loginSubmit',
'value' => 'Login',
'class' => 'submit-btn',
];?>
<?= form_submit($submit); ?>
</div>
<h4 style='text-align: center'>Not a member yet? Register
<a href= <?= site_url('users/register'); ?> title = 'Register'> HERE</a>
</h4>
<?= form_close(); ?>
</div>

Answer 1

It was a stupid mistake. Someone on the codeigniter forum answered my question here: CodeIgniter Forum
basically in my constructor I needed $this->userModel = new UserModel(); instead of $userModel = new UserModel();.