Yii2 - How to get the current username or name from Yii::$app->user?

How do you add, or get, variables using Yii::$app->user->something?

I don't want to get them through identity. I want to make specific ones accessible through user.

For example, I want to get the current logged in user's username and name:

\Yii::$app->user->username

or

\Yii::$app->user->name

While other topics here on SO offer a chincy hack solution, or to simply fetch it through Yii::$app->user->identity, I am going to show you how to do it properly. You can bend Yii2 to your will, by virtually extending everything!

I normally work in the "advanced" app, but I am going to just use the "basic" app as a reference for everyone. I assume those who are using the "advanced" app know the differences and understand namespaces.

Namespace Crash Course: In basic, you have namespace app\path\to. This is where the file is located. For example, you have ContactForm.php located in the app root models directory, so it's namespace is app\models. In advanced, you have multiple apps (frontend & backend), so the app root is different, thus you have frontend as one app root, and backend as another. The models directory in the advanced app is at "frontend/models" and it's namespace is frontend\models. -- So anywhere you see "app" in the namespace, you can replace it with frontend or backend for the "advanced" template.

---

Solution

First, we need to modify our app's config file to override the default User component's class. I will leave out anything not related, so you keep your identityClass defined, I just am not showing it. We are simply adding to, not replacing, the config. Also, where I show frontend/something, the same can be done for backend/something. I just am not going to repeat both over and over again...

Basic (config/web.php) -or- Advanced (frontend/config/main.php)

'components' => [
    'user' => [
        'class' => 'app\components\User', // extend User component
    ],
],

Remember: If you are using the advanced template, replace app with frontend or backend!

I also want to point out, that you will need to create the "components" directory if you haven't done so. This is where many people add their custom Classes. Whether it be your own helper class, or extending a base Yii component (such as extending yii\web\Controller).

Create a new file in your components directory named User.php. In that file, place the following code:

<?php
namespace app\components;

use Yii;

/**
 * Extended yii\web\User
 *
 * This allows us to do "Yii::$app->user->something" by adding getters
 * like "public function getSomething()"
 *
 * So we can use variables and functions directly in `Yii::$app->user`
 */
class User extends \yii\web\User
{
    public function getUsername()
    {
        return \Yii::$app->user->identity->username;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return \Yii::$app->user->identity->name;
    }
}

Note: username and name must be valid column names in your database's user table!

So now we can use this in our controller, view, anywhere.. Let's test it out. In views/site/index.php, add this to the bottom of the page:

<?= \Yii::$app->user->name ?>
<?= \Yii::$app->user->username ?>

If all is good, and you have values in the user table for name and username, they should be printed on to the page :)