fat models and thin controllers in codeigniter - mysql

Question

this is a user.php controller
public function verifyLogin() {
if (isset($_POST["email"])) {
$e = $this->input->post("email");
$p = $this->input->post("pass");
$this->form_validation->set_rules("email", "email", "required|valid_email|xss_clean");
$this->form_validation->set_rules("pass", "password", "required|xss_clean");
if ($this->form_validation->run()) {
$data = array(
'select' => '*',
'table' => 'users',
'where' => "email = '$e' AND activated = '1'"
);
$checklogin = $this->query2->selectData($data);
if ($checklogin === FALSE) {
echo "quering userInfo fails. email is wrong or activation not done";
exit();
} else {
foreach ($checklogin as $row) {
$dbid = $row->id;
$dbusername = $row->username;
$dbpassword = $row->password;
$dbemail = $row->email;
if ($p === $dbpassword) {
$login_data = array(
'name' => $dbusername,
'email' => $dbemail,
'password' => $dbpassword,
'id' => $dbid,
'expire' => '86500',
'secure' => TRUE,
'logged_in' => TRUE
);
$this->input->set_cookie($login_data);
$this->session->set_userdata($login_data);
if ($this->session->userdata("logged_in")) {
$time = time();
$now = unix_to_human($time, TRUE, 'us');
$updateLogin = $this->query1->updateLogin($e, $now);
if ($updateLogin) {
echo "success";
} else {
echo 'update failed';
}
} else {
echo "session failed";
}
}else{
echo 'password incorrect';
}
}
}
} else {
echo "form validation fails";
}
} else {
$this->load->view('header');
$this->load->view('login');
$this->load->view('modal');
$this->load->view('footer');
}
}
this is model.php
public function selectData($data){
if(isset($data['direction'])){
$dir = $data['direction'];
}else{
$dir = "ASC";
}
if(isset($data['offset'])){
$off = $data['offset'];
}else{
$off = '0';
}
if(isset($data['select']) && isset($data['table'])){
$this->db->select($data['select'])->from($data['table']);
}
if(isset($data['where'])){
$this->db->where($data['where']);
}
if(isset($data['order_by_name'])){
$this->db->order_by($data['order_by_name'], $dir);
}
if(isset($data['limit'])){
$this->db->limit($data['limit'], $off);
}
$query = $this->db->get();
if($query){
$d = $query->result();
return $d;
}else{
return FALSE;
}
}
is this a good way of quering database?
i am new to mvc and i am reading everywhere about "fat models and this controllers"
what can be done to make it a good mvc architecture?

Answer 1

its only acceptable to echo out from the controller when you are developing:
if ($checklogin === FALSE) {
echo "quering userInfo fails.
if checking login is false then either show a view or go to a new method like
if ($checklogin === FALSE) {
$this->showLoginFailed($errorMessage) ;
the check login code in the controller is a great example of something that could be refactored to a model. then if you need to check login from another controller its much easier. putting the form validation code in a model would be another choice. often times when you are validating form code you are also inserting/updating to a database table -- so having all those details together in a model can make things easier long term.
"fat model" does not mean one method in a model that does a hundred things. it means the controller says -- did this customer form validate and insert to the database? yes or no? 3 lines of code.
the model has the code that is looking into the "fat" details of the form, validation, database, etc etc. say 50 or more lines compared to the 3 in the controller. but the methods in the model should still be clean: small and specific.