New CI 1.7 session class database error

[eluser]CIfan1000[/eluser]
Hi,
I started using the new CI 1.7 session class with database based session variable storage, and got this error:

A Database Error Occurred

Error Number: 1364

Field 'user_data' doesn't have a default value

INSERT INTO `ci_sessions` (`session_id`, `ip_address`, `user_agent`, `last_activity`) VALUES ('5aa4c19ec6e1b86e0401e23f3dc27508', '127.0.0.1', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv', 1224982938)

I am not an experienced user/programmer but I think this is happening because the SQL query does not insert anything into the user_data field of the ci_sessions table. I looked at the design of this table and this field is set to NOT NULL so maybe it is expecting a value during an INSERT query.

Please please help. Thank you for your time and effort in advance.

[eluser]Randy Casburn[/eluser]
Hi CIfan1000,

You're very intuitive! You've interpreted this error correctly.

Are you trying to store data in the session? If so, can you share the code with us that you're using to do that? That would be helpful in isolating what might be going on.

Thanks,

Randy

[eluser]dmiden[/eluser]
Simply put the field to NULL and it should not give you any error :x

[eluser]CIfan1000[/eluser]
Hi,
Thanks for your quick response.

To answer your question, I am storing session data. I get this error in a login controller I have developed, and the code below handles the case if the validation was ok or not......

Code:

if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)  // If login failed (is FALSE)
        {

            // ---------------------------------------------------- Load login view
            // Load first part of template:
            $data['title'] = "User login";
            $this->load->view('templates/template01part1',$data);

            // Load menu:
            
            // Load second part of template:
            $this->load->view('templates/template01part2',$data);

            // Load body:
            $this->load->view('login/login');
            
            // Load third part of template:
            $this->load->view('templates/template01part3',$data);

        }
        else // If login passed
        {

            // --------------------------------------------------------------------
            //Get the username from the post of the form:
            $UserName = $_POST['LoginUsername'];


            // Store the username as session variable called UserName so that it can be used in other controllers:
            $this->session->set_userdata('UserName', $UserName);


            // --------------------------------------------------------------------
            // Store the user's authentication status as Registered
            $this->session->set_userdata('UserStatus', 'Registered');


            // --------------------------------------------------------------------
            // Store the userid as a session variable so that it can be used in other controllers

            // Get the user id:
            $query = $this->db->query("SELECT UserId FROM users WHERE UserName='{$UserName}' ");

            // If there is at least one
            if ($query->num_rows() > 0)
                {
                    foreach ($query->result() as $row)
                        {
                                $this->session->set_userdata('UserId', $row->UserId);
                        }
                }


            // ---------------------------------------------------- Load login success view
            // Load first part of template:
            $data['title'] = "Login successful!";
            $this->load->view('templates/template01part1',$data);

            // Menu goes here:
            
            // Load second part of template:
            $this->load->view('templates/template01part2',$data);

            // Load body:
            $this->load->view('login/loginsuccess');

            // Load third part of template:
            $this->load->view('templates/template01part3',$data);

        }

I fear my code may be amateurish...............................

Thanks again for any help! (Its bedtime here so I may not respond again till the morning......)

[eluser]CIfan1000[/eluser]
Thanks dmiden,

I think that is a good suggestion (to make the field NULL) and I thought of that as well.

But then I became concerned that if I am trying to store session variables, why is the SQL query not trying to insert anything into the user_data field? I would imagine that custom session data would be stored in that field?

[eluser]CIfan1000[/eluser]
Just some additional info:

When I set:

$config['sess_use_database'] = FALSE;

in config.php,

my code works fine and I can see the custom session variables buried in the value of the cookie:

a:7:{s:10:"session_id";s:32:"276573a61533e38a3111f11dcf46e876";s:10:"ip_address";s:9:"127.0.0.1";s:10:"user_agent";s:50:"Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+5.1;+en-US;+rv";s:13:"last_activity";s:10:"1224988329";s:8:"UserName";s:7:"ciuser1";s:10:"UserStatus";s:10:"Registered";s:6:"UserId";s:1:"1";}c83f8beafb0327d84fccf924698dbea8

[eluser]Randy Casburn[/eluser]
[quote author="CIfan1000" date="1225002905"]
I fear my code may be amateurish..[/quote]

Right! I was just going to say...

Your code looks fine, and I want to especially thank you for putting out the effort to try. You're doing very well.

But... I can't duplicate your error.

Let's make sure this the data type for the user_data column is, in fact, TEXT type. Then it will be helpful to know which version of MySQL you're using.

As a side note, you cannot set a default value in your table definition for TEXT datatype.

Randy

[eluser]dmiden[/eluser]
Using the database your custom session data can have a much larger size.
Therefore I recommend using the database.

Setting the table to NULL will fix your problem .
I think the error is occurring the session is initialized and setting the user data.
As default, no custom user data is being set at that point and thus the sql generates an error.

[eluser]Randy Casburn[/eluser]
What I don't understand is why it works for me (and likely everyone else) the way it is specified in the documentation. i.e. TEXT data type NOT NULL

That's puzzling.

Randy

[eluser]dmiden[/eluser]
It didnt work for me.
Are you using custom data and the database?