Shared memory/application state

[Anon]

Hello All,

I am trying to set up a page on my site which includes user information for people who are logged on currently. I know how to do this in asp, but I am trying to do a site just for my friends/associates to use (no revenue unfortunately), so I need low cost hosting and PHP/MySQL is easily the best option for me.

In asp, I would do this by storing an array in the application object containing user details. I would then remove a user's details from the application object in the Session_OnEnd function.

In PHP, there doesn't seem to be anything resembling the Application object or the Session_OnEnd function.

I notice there are shared memory functions, but they are dependant on compile time options, so I will have to check with my ISP that they have these options enabled. If not, it isn't too serious because I can store the data in a MySQL table.

Has anyone got some example code for the shared memory function that I could take a look at.

Is there any mechanism for running a function when a session times out?

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Darren

[Anon]

This is important - if your hosting provider runs PHP on a POSIX-noncompliant system (i.e. Windows) you will not be able to use shared memory or semaphore functions.

You can use register_shutdown_function() to register a function to be run on user abort. I'm not sure if this will also run on page load timeout or session expiration. Worth looking into, though.

Kyle