joomla - Storing user parameters in custom component issue - database

Question

Hi for my custom component I need to set some custom parameters for joomla user for membership for checking if the user ni trial period or not and it can be change from the component admin panel for specific user.
The problem arises while retrieving the parameter. I think it is stored in cookie and it isn^t updated. I wrote the code like that to check it.
$user = JFactory::getUser(JRequest::getVar('id','0'));
echo $user->getParam('trialPeriod','0');
to save the value I am useing JHTML booleanlist.
$user->setParam('trialPeriod',$data['trialPeriod']);
$user->save();
Then is stores the value in joomla users table in the row of that user with column of params as;
{"trialPeriod":"0"}
in this situation it echoes the value as 0. Then I am changin the state of trialPeriod var as 1 and storing in db it updates the db as;
{"trialPeriod":"1"}
After all I am refreshing the page where the value is prompt the the screen the the value remains still the same as 0;
To clarify;
First of all there is no problem with saving the param it is changed properly. The problem is retrieving the changed one. The releated piece of code is following;
$user = JFactory::getUser();
$doc = JFactory::getDocument();
if($user->getParam('trialPeriod',0) == 0){
$ed = JFactory::getDate($obj->expirationDate);//obj is user from custom table and there is no problem with getting it.
$isTrialEnd = FALSE;
}else{
$ed = JFactory::getDate($user->getParam('trialExp',0));
$isTrialEnd = TRUE;
}
if($isTrialEnd){
//do something else
}else{
echo $user->getParam('trialPeriod','0');
}
actually big part of the code is unneccessary to explain it but you will get the idea.
What is the solution for this?
Editted.
$app = JFactory::getApplication();
$config = JFactory::getConfig();
$db = $this->getDbo();
$isNew = empty($data['uid']) ? true : false;
$params = JComponentHelper::getParams('com_dratransport');
if($isNew){
// Initialise the table with JUser.
$user = new JUser;
// Prepare the data for the user object.
$username = self::getCreatedUserName($data['type']);
$data['username'] = !empty($data['username']) ? $data['username'] : $username;
$data['password'] = $data['password1'];
$useractivation = $params->get('useractivation');
// Check if the user needs to activate their account.
if (($useractivation == 1) || ($useractivation == 2)) {
$data['activation'] = JApplication::getHash(JUserHelper::genRandomPassword());
$data['block'] = 1;
}
}else{
$user = JFactory::getUser($data['uid']);
$data['password'] = $data['password1'];
}
$membership = DraTransportHelperArrays::membershipCFG();
$membership = $membership[$data['membership']];
if($data['membership'] == 4)
$data['groups'] = array($params->get('new_usertype',2),$params->get($membership,2));
else
$data['groups'] = array($params->get($membership,2));
$data['name'] = $data['companyName'];
$user->setParam('trialPeriod',$data['trialPeriod']);
// Bind the data.
if (!$user->bind($data)) {
$this->setError(JText::sprintf('COM_USERS_REGISTRATION_BIND_FAILED', $user->getError()));
return false;
}
// Load the users plugin group.
JPluginHelper::importPlugin('user');
// Store the data.
if (!$user->save()) {
$app->enqueuemessage($user->getError());
$this->setError(JText::sprintf('COM_USERS_REGISTRATION_SAVE_FAILED', $user->getError()));
return false;
}
this piece of code is for storing the data releated with the users table.

Answer 1

Turns out this was the fact that Joomla stores the JUser instance in the session that caused the problem.
When changing a user's parameters from the back-end, the changes are not reflected in that user's session, until she logs out and back in again.
We could not find an easy option to modify anther user's active session, so we resorted to the use of a plugin that refreshes the JUser instance in the logged-in users' session, something like the following:
$user = JFactory::getUser();
$session = JFactory::getSession();
if(!$user->guest) {
$session->set('user', new JUser($user->id));
}
(reference: here).