[solved]Passing values from a record in a session?

[eluser]brucebat[/eluser]
Thanks:

Im still having problems with the logic, I try to echo some user session stuff or check they are set and its saying undefined variable. Or it is not doing anything.

login_model/validate()

Code:

function validate()
    {
        $username = $this->input->post('username', true);
        $password = $this->input->post('password', true);
        
        $this->db->where('username', $username);
        $this->db->where('password', $password);
        $query = $this->db->get('user');

        if ($query->num_rows() > 0)
        {
            $row = $query->row();
            $userdata = array
            (
                'userID' => $row-> user_id,
                'name' => $row-> first_name,
                'username' => $row-> username,
                'access_level' => $row-> access_level
            );
            
            
            $this->session->set_userdata('user', $userdata);
            return TRUE;
        }
        return FALSE;
    }

login controller

Code:

function authenticate()
    {    
    
        $this->load->model('login_model');
        $userlogin = $this->login_model->validate();
        
        if($userlogin) // if the user's credentials validated...
            {
                $data['user_session'] = $this->session->userdata('user');
                redirect('site/home', $data);
                
            }
        else // incorrect username or password
        {
            $message = "Incorrect username or password";
            redirect('site/index', $message);
            
        }
    }

control panel view

Code:

<?php
    
    
    //checks if session variable has been set
        if ( ! $this->session->userdata('name')) //not
        {
            echo "<p><b>Guest", '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', anchor('site/login', 'Login') ,'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', anchor('site/register', 'Register'), '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', date("H:i:s", time()),'</b></p>';
        }
        
        else
    
        {
            echo '<p><b>',$this->session->userdata('name'),'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', anchor('', 'Control Panel'),'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', anchor('login/logout', 'Logout') ,'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;',date("H:i:s", time()),'</b></p>';
        }

    ?&gt;

I am really confused with all the documentation with:

set_userdata
$userdata
setuserdata

etc

This is all still very alien to me from what im used to in C++

Thanks for your time.