[SOLVED] Storing Globals

[blackcell]

Can you pass a variable from page to page without passing it in the address bar?  I think you can do this with globals but I don't understand "variable scopes" very well yet. 

 

 

[nogray]

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ref.session.php

 

First Page
session_start();
$_SESSION['something'] = 'hello';

Second page
session_start();
echo $_SESSION['something'];

[blackcell]

Thanks

[blackcell]

Now is data stored uniqe per session or do you need to make it unique by say...creating

 

<?php

$_SESSION['userIP']['something1']['something2']

?>

[uniflare]

it is unique per session, now two users will have the same sessid.

[blackcell]

Ok. So if you start session() this creates the session.  When is the session destroyed or released? When the user closes the browser or leaved the site?  I have a feeling it works like htaccess but not for sure.

 

Also, do you have to start session() on each page to recall the users session?

[uniflare]

like htaccess yes, all data is removed once the browser has been closed as the session id is lost.

 

every page using session variables needs session_start() first, and each page after the START page needs a $_GET['PHPSESSID'] variable passed TO it. you would use the php CONSTANT: SID, to input the session id.

 

ex.

 

page1.php

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['Number'] = $_GET['Number'];
echo("Page 1 Number Is: ".$_SESSION['Number']."<BR>".
    "<A href=\"page2.php?PHPSESSID=".SID."\">Next Page</a>"
);
?>

 

page2.php

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['Number'] = $_GET['Number'];
echo("Page 2 Number Is: ".$_SESSION['Number']."<BR>".
    "<A href=\"page3.php?PHPSESSID=".SID."\">Next Page</a>"
);
?>

 

page3.php

<?php
session_start();
echo("Page 3 Number Is: ".$_SESSION['Number']."<BR>".
    "<A href=\"page4.php?PHPSESSID=".SID."\">Next Page</a>"
);
?>

[blackcell]

If you pass and grab just the session ID will the entire $_SESSION array be available or do you have to pass all of them?

 

I am trying to use this to store a user unique ID to an an array cell. After the login I will test at the beginning of each page for that array cell to have a value and if it doesn't they are redirected to the login page.

[uniflare]

Blackcell you can easily do this, $_SESSION variables are stored in an (encrypted?) file on the server.

 

the SESSION 'ID' is maintained byt the name of the file on the server and a cookie/query_string on the client's browser.

 

Every variable in the $_SESSION variable/array will be available as long as the clients browser can gived a valid Session ID, either by Cookie or URL Query.

----

Bear in mind Sessions do not last forever and not even dynamic lifetimes (cannot set them per user blah blah as far as i know of).

 

To keep users logged in after a week or so you will need a cookie (there may be other ways like hardware identifiers with java etc but thats probably overkill), Don't use IP Addresses.

 

Hope this helps,

[blackcell]

Ok cool, now I am using this to store sessions variables now.  I was using:

<?php
//Used to ensure uniqueness while moving through the site.
$tier1 = 0;
define("GSID",$tier1);
define("USER",$tier1++);
define("INFO1",$tier1++);
define("INFO_SO_ON",$tier1++);

//Then I the user will log on "code is not here"
//session_start(); happens at the beginning of every page.

//index.php
$queriedUID = 1; //For example
$_SESSION[GSID] = $queriedUID;  //<----This DOES NOT work.
$_SESSION['GSID'] = $queriedUID; //<----This WORKS

//I am not passing any variables through the URL

//main.php
echo $_SESSION[GSID]; //<----This DOES NOT work.
echo $_SESSION['GSID'];//<----This WORKS
?>

 

Point being I am trying to define constants as number and increment those numbers. As I list it through the definition of the constant.This way I do not have to bother with organization but I know everything is unique, therefore I can call something in the $_SESSION array with something a little easier to remember in the Index.  Some reason this isn't working but if I use just words in quotes the way it is done most of the time, it works.

 

You might be saying why not just use the words? Well when I use defined constants it can be rolled into one file, and provide a reference point instead of digging through lines of code to see what I used for something.

[uniflare]

I do not understand exactly why you do not want to use quotes?

 

Can you explain the use of your constants a little more

[blackcell]

It is fine to use quotes I just wanted to know what causes it not to work.

 

I wanted to use constants so that there would be a standard index for every value. This will eventually be a more than one person project that deals heavily with loading a users values from a database into session variables.  I wanted to make it so that everyone would know which values to use based on constants and they could reference a particular page to find that name.  So its no biggy.  I thought it looked cooler to  (lame I know)