CodeIgniter: How to view the dashboard after logging in and get the URL to be /dashboard

Question

After logging in, the I display the dashboard, but the URL isn't "/dashboard", after logging in this is the URl displayed: http://localhost/tools2/login/validate_credentials

I want it to be http://localhost/tools2/dashboard and when I enter this URL I don't get anything displayed.

this is the code responsible for the login in the "controllers" section:

login.php

// Validation function: Checks if the user is in the 'users' DB and logs him in. 
function validate_credentials(){

    $this->load->helper('url');

    $email    = $this->input->post('email');
    $password = $this->input->post('password');

    $this->load->model('membership_model'); 
    $query = $this->membership_model->validate($email, $password);

    if ( $query ) {  // if the user's credentials validated...

        $data = array(
                'email' => $email, 
                'is_logged_in' => TRUE
            );

        $this->session->set_userdata($data); 
        $this->load->view('dashboard'); 

    } else {
        $this->index();
    }
}

dashboard.php

<?php

class Dashboard extends CI_Controller{

    // This is the first function to be called here. 
    function index(){

        $this->load->view('header'); 
        $this->load->view('dashboard'); 
        $this->load->view('footer'); 

    }


}

login form:

<div id="login_form">

    <?php if ( isset($account_created) ) { ?>
        <h3> <?php echo $account_created; ?> </h3>
    <?php } else { ?> 
        <h1>Login, Please. </h1>
    <?php } ?>

    <?php 

        echo form_open('login/validate_credentials');
        echo form_input('email', 'Email');
        echo form_password('password', '', 'placeholder="Password" class="password"');
        echo form_submit('submit', 'Login');
        echo anchor('login/signup', 'Create Account');
        echo form_close();

    ?>

    <?php echo validation_errors('<p clas="error">'); ?>

</div> <!-- END login_form -->

Answer 1

Try this

function validate_credentials(){

    $this->load->helper('url');

    $email    = $this->input->post('email');
    $password = $this->input->post('password');

    $this->load->model('membership_model'); 
    $query = $this->membership_model->validate($email, $password);

    if ( $query ) {  // if the user's credentials validated...

        $data = array(
                'email' => $email, 
                'is_logged_in' => TRUE
            );
 $this->session->set_userdata($data); 
       redirect('Dashboard');

    } else {
        $this->index();
    }
}