Hi there!
If you need to display different versions of the index page (i.e. use different controllers), depending on whether a user is a guest or not, you may use the following code: (add this to config/main.php)
'onBeginRequest' => function () {
if (!Yii::app()->user->isGuest) {
Yii::app()->defaultController = 'dashboard';
}
},
good tip!
I guess I should mention that this will not work on PHP < 5.3
Anyway, all progressive coders are already on 5.3 branch 
Anonymous functions alone are well worth it
Since this only changes the defaultController, it appears that this can be easily overridden with a simple URL.
For Example: mysite?r=site/index
Does anyone know of a more robust method of creating and using a GuestController for a guest user?
@nwap is right…I need to know a more robust way too!!!
Nwap, you may use access filters to force the needed behaviour
@tedd,could you please give a practical example with access filters to force the needed behavior…
like your default controller trips…
thanks
bipu
As nwap noticed, a guest user can easily access DashboardController by simply typing "index.php?r=dashboard/index". The solution is to forbid access of unauthorized users to DashboardController by using access filters:
class DashboardController extends Controller
{
public function filters ()
{
return array(
'accessControl',
);
}
public function accessRules ()
{
// allow only authenticated users
return array(
array('allow',
'users' => array('@'),
),
array('deny',
'users' => array('?'),
),
);
}
/** the rest of the code */
}
tedd,
I think your suggestion is Yii’s “standard” solution
However, I am trying to setup a webapp where only a few select pages are accessible by ‘Guest’. The rest require an authorized user for access.
I’d like a solution that satisfies the following goals:
If I forget to do something (such as update the accessRules() method on a new controller), I want the safe default behavior. In other words deny access to ‘Guest’.
If access is denied to ‘Guest’, I want Yii to redirect to the login page instead of showing an error.
I’ve come up with a solution that satisfies these goals, but since I’m very new to Yii, I’m looking for feedback and/or suggestions from the Yii community.
Here are the changes that I made:
In the array returned by ‘protected/config/main.php’, I added a params[‘publicPages’] entry:
'params'=>array(
...
// List of public pages that can be accessed without authentication.
// All other pages will result in a redirect to the login page.
'publicPages'=>array(
'site/login',
'site/error',
),
),
In ‘protected/components/Controller.php’, I overrode the runActionWithFilters() method:
/**
* Runs an action with the specified filters.
* Extends the CController::runActionWithFilters() function.
* If a Guest user is trying to access a non-public page, then redirect to the login page.
* @param CAction $action the action to be executed.
* @param array $filters list of filters to be applied to the action.
*/
public function runActionWithFilters($action,$filters)
{
$params=Yii::app()->params;
if(isset($params) && isset($params['publicPages']))
{
$route="{$this->id}/{$action->id}";
if (!in_array($route, $params['publicPages']))
{
if (Yii::app()->user->isGuest)
{
Yii::app()->user->loginRequired();
return;
}
}
}
parent::runActionWithFilters($action,$filters);
}
Seems to work for me on v1.1.7 and v1.1.8 – Please comment.
This solution seems not be robust as it requires to set pages which should be given access.
In my point of view, Access rules are best
the second solution is that, in each action, we need to check is it allowed for the current user
public function actionIndex(){
if(Yii::app()->user->IsGuest){
$this->redirect('site/login');
}
}
PeRoChAk,
However, that is the whole point. As stated in my #1 goal, for websites where most of the pages require some type of authorization, I want the default behavior to block all pages without having to write the same code in every controller and/or every action.
I do not understand how using access rules satisfies my original #1 goal:
Just use inheritance.
I did use inheritance.
I did this. I have also enabled pretty URLs too.
Now when I login I get dashboard in the URL <sitename>/index.php. How do I get the page <sitename>/dashboard as the default page when user logs in?