Why does this not set any cookie?

[Niixie]

Hey PHPFreaks!

 

I have a problem with my login script, because when i login it sets a cookie and it all works. But when i got redirected and refresh the page, my script turns an error which says i'm not logged in? how come?

 

This is what finds the cookie and redirects me

 

if(!isset($_SESSION['auth']) && !isset($_COOKIE['authcookie'])) {
        $_SESSION['ERROR'] = 7;
        header('location: index.php?login');
    }

[Pikachu2000]

Is session_start() somewhere above that point in the script?

[Niixie]

session_start(); is in the very top, just underneath <?php

[Pikachu2000]

I'd start with a <pre>formatted print_r() of both $_SESSION and $_COOKIE after the refresh to begin to sort this out.

[Niixie]

Can you explain me, please?

[Pikachu2000]

On the page you're redirected to, add this and see what values are actually present, and if they are what they're supposed to be.

 

echo '<pre>$_SESSION:';
print_r($_SESSION);
echo '$_COOKIE:';
print_r($_COOKIE);
echo '</pre>';

 

EDIT: Actually, I'd probably do this in both scripts. Just comment out the header() redirect temporarily in the first one to prevent it sending you away.

[Niixie]

Output from before final page

 

$_SESSION:Array
(
    [ERROR] => -1
    [upvalid] => 1
    [accountname] => -1
    [email] => [email protected]
    [password] => e
    [username] => x
    [auth] => 1
)
$_COOKIE:Array
(
    [cookie] => Array
        (
            [three] => cookiethree
            [two] => cookietwo
            [one] => cookieone
        )

    [phpSESSID] => 61e1a8i0b3uifd0b1o3ejpkb77
)

 

Output from last page

 

$_SESSION:Array
(
    [ERROR] => 7
    [upvalid] => 1
    [accountname] => -1
    [email] => [email protected]
    [password] => e
    [username] => x
)
$_COOKIE:Array
(
    [cookie] => Array
        (
            [three] => cookiethree
            [two] => cookietwo
            [one] => cookieone
        )

    [phpSESSID] => 61e1a8i0b3uifd0b1o3ejpkb77
)

 

The cookie isn't there, but three other cookies i created to test is there. Don't know how to remove them, there is no time limit on them.

[Niixie]

Can you modify this so it makes a cookie with a time on 1 hour?

 

setcookie('authcookie', $row[0], time()+3600); <--- My old

[Niixie]

Nobody?

[kenrbnsn]

Can you post the code where you set the cookie?

 

Ken

[dcro2]

Have you tried looking for the cookie in your browser? I know Firefox and Chrome let you look at the full list of cookies you have set. The directory or something might be set differently than you expect, since you don't specify the cookie domain or path.

[Niixie]

Ken:

 

Can you modify this so it makes a cookie with a time on 1 hour?

 

setcookie('authcookie', $row[0], time()+3600); <--- My old

 

 

Dcro2:

 

I only looked the way that Pikachu suggested, maybe a path and domain is good to have?

[PFMaBiSmAd]

So, are you developing and debugging this on a system with error_reporting set to E_ALL and display_errors set to ON so that all the php detected errors will be reported and displayed. I'll guess you are getting a header error that is preventing the setcookie() from working.

 

You also might be changing the path or the host-name/subdomain (www. vs no www. on the URL) in the URL from where the setcookie() statement is at and the cookie is not being sent back to the server from the browser. See the 4th and 5th parameters of the setcookie() statement.

 

You also might have the setcookie() statement inside of some conditional logic that is FALSE and the statement is not being executed. When kenrbnsn asked for the code where you are setting the cookie, he did not mean just the setcookie() statement. He meant all the code that would show when and where you are setting the cookie.

[Niixie]

So, are you developing and debugging this on a system with error_reporting set to E_ALL and display_errors set to ON so that all the php detected errors will be reported and displayed. I'll guess you are getting a header error that is preventing the setcookie() from working.

 

You also might be changing the path or the host-name/subdomain (www. vs no www. on the URL) in the URL from where the setcookie() statement is at and the cookie is not being sent back to the server from the browser. See the 4th and 5th parameters of the setcookie() statement.

 

You also might have the setcookie() statement inside of some conditional logic that is FALSE and the statement is not being executed. When kenrbnsn asked for the code where you are setting the cookie, he did not mean just the setcookie() statement. He meant all the code that would show when and where you are setting the cookie.

 

Answer block 1,2:

What can i do to find out if its a header error?

 

Answer block 3:

There is no problem where the setcookie() statement is placed, there is a $_SESSION['auth'] aswell, and it's set perfectly.

[PFMaBiSmAd]

You should set the error_reporting/display_errors settings in your master php.ini on your development system, so that you don't need to remember to put them into your code or remove them when you put your code onto a live server (display_errors should not be ON for a live server.) Setting them in your master php.ini will also get php to display fatal parse errors (putting the settings into your script won't show fatal parse errors because you script never runs and the lines of code to change the settings are never executed.)

 

Just because you can set $_SESSION variables at one point in your code (just requires that the session_start() worked), does not mean that a setcookie() statement will work at that point in the code. If you output any character(s) to the browser before the setcookie() statement, it will prevent the setcookie() from working.

[Niixie]

COPY FROM php.ini

 

; display_errors
;   Default Value: On
;   Development Value: On
;   Production Value: Off

; error_reporting
;   Default Value: E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
;   Development Value: E_ALL | E_STRICT
;   Production Value: E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED

 

Anything needs to be changed?

[PFMaBiSmAd]

Those are comments telling you what the suggested values should be. Those aren't the lines that are setting the values.

[Niixie]

Found this

 

error_reporting = E_ALL 

display_errors = On

 

Is that it?

[PFMaBiSmAd]

Yes.

 

But does a phpinfo statement show those are the actual settings being used by php?

[Niixie]

phpinfo() says

 

display_errors	On
error_reporting	30719

 

Is that answer?