Storing An Object In A Session

[JustinK101]

So I am storing a custom class object I wrote in a session like:

 

////

// Set session language object

////

$_SESSION['language_object'] = $language;

 

$language is an instance of my Language class.

 

Then I am calling the following block of code from Inside my Language load() method. Basically what I want to do is see if the session already exists storing all Language strings, if so use that.

 

if(isset($_SESSION['language_object'])) {
			$language_obj = $_SESSION['language_object'];
			$this->language_array = $language_obj->get_array();
			return;
		}

 

This is kicking back the following error:

 

Fatal error: Language::load() [<a href='language.load'>language.load</a>]: The script tried to execute a method or access a property of an incomplete object. Please ensure that the class definition "Language" of the object you are trying to operate on was loaded _before_ unserialize() gets called or provide a __autoload() function to load the class definition in Language.php on line 38

 

Any idea what the hell that means?

[tapos]

first serialize  the object using serialize(), then save it to session. when u retrieve from session use unserialize().

LIke bellow:

save the object to the session

//saving object to session
$_SESSION['language_object'] = serialize($language);

//retrieve the object

if(isset($_SESSION['language_object'])) {
			$language_obj = unserialize($_SESSION['language_object']);
			$this->language_array = $language_obj->get_array();
			return;
		}

 

BTW, you must have to include the class definition when you want to retrieve object from the session.

Hope this will help you.

Thanks

[JustinK101]

tapos,

 

Ok the serialize and unserialize worked like champ. Thanks very much.

 

I don't follow/understand what you mean by:

 

"BTW, you must have to include the class definition when you want to retrieve object from the session."

 

Also, what is the exact reason I have to serialize and object before storing in a session? I never read this anywhere.

[tapos]

"BTW, you must have to include the class definition when you want to retrieve object from the session."

that means your object is a instance of Language, so when u retrieve the object from  session so, Language class definition must be available there.

 

Also, what is the exact reason I have to serialize and object before storing in a session? I never read this anywhere.

how u will save a binary data into a file?  u must have to it in text format, thats why u need to serialize.

use session_register function to save the object in the session, it automatically done that serialize and unserialize thing.

see this http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop.serialization.php

 

 

 

[JustinK101]

Ok makes sense tapos, I think I will stick with using serialize() and unserialize() versus using session_register because of the following:

 

"If your script uses session_register(), it will not work in environments where the PHP directive register_globals is disabled."

 

Thanks for the help, very helpful.

[PFMaBiSmAd]

If you create the object directly in the session, you can avoid all the extra steps -

 

$_SESSION['language_object'] = new your_language_class;