how to prevent expiring page w/sessions?

Anon

Is there a way to prevent the page from expriring when using sessions? When I'm using sessions, the "back" button no longer works.

Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew

knickerlas

A simple way is to use 'GET' in your forms as opposed to 'POST'

Nick

Anon

Sounds so simple. Why doesn't it work with post?

knickerlas

Not sure of the specifics, but get is more limited than post and is not ideal for all purposes as the vars are transfered through the URL.

Nick

[deleted]

cough
<sarcastic>
Another simply solution would be to stop using forms altogether...
</sarcastic>

Or you could change your website so that you don't need to use the ever-ugly back button at all. Why not simply print the form again? Then you can pre-fill out all the data as required.

Anon

Thanks for your sarcastic message; it was so helpful. Users will always turn to the "browser's" back button when in trouble.

I don't think I follow you about printing the form again -- that is what I want to happen. However, IE display's the "page has expired warning" before redisplaying the empty form.

Nick suggested that I use "get" instead of "post" but "get" is not always the best option. Why is this an issue with php? Sessions work seamlessly with asp and jsp. I know that I have just set myself up to be flamed here, but I would surely benefit from a good explaination.

Thanks,

Andrew

[deleted]

My sarcastic reply was for Nick. Using GET instead of POST is a stupid solution.

The error you get comes from your browser, who has been instructed (either by you through the browser settings, or by the remote server through headers) not to cache any output generated by POST operations.
This is a good thing (even though you might disagree) because it forces the broswer to allways request the page. Thus making sure it allways has the correct data in it.

A quote from the annotations in the manual:
-- quote --
Everyone who is having problems with cacheing in PHP4 ("Data Missing" error in Netscape for example) and didn't get this error in PHP3 should set session.cache_limiter = public (in php.ini). If set to nocache, php4 sends no-cache headers, which wasn't the case in php3 (because there's was no native session support).
-- end quote --

What I meant about printing the form is exactly that: print the form again.
This is very helpfull if you have a form with required fields, and someone forgets to fill a field. After the post, check the data, and if any is missing, print the form again, with all the correct data in place, and a nice error message for the missing field.

knickerlas

Vincent.

If my suggestion is 'Stupid' why not explain why I am mistaken.

Such rudeness is unbecoming in one of this forums more respected contributors, not to mention unneccesary.

Nick

Anon

using GET is dumb... then you are risking double posting and that is the exact reasont the POSTs expire. it is a good thing... but the 'expired' page is ugly and confusing as @!#$.

just edit your php.ini file and find something refering to 'cache_control' or 'cache_limiter' or something and set it to nothing...

if it was:

cache_control = blah;

set it to

cache_control = ;

then IE becomes in charge and does pretty well controling everything... and that is why ASP and JSP are seamless, because they default to not controlling the cache whereas php does.

as for vincent flaming you, you said something dumb and he insulted you... that is how the world works buddy.

and don't bother insulting me, because i am rubber and you are glue. neener neener neener!

knickerlas

How old are you?

Nick

[deleted]

I'm sorry, didn't mean to be rude, but using GET instead of POST is hardly
a solution is it?

The problem was that POST didn't work as expected, so the solution should
make POST work, not change from POST to GET, which might not even work because of size limits.

POST works fine with a small change to the php.ini.

knickerlas

NO worries,
actually, I've learnt much from this series of posts.
Is there a way to work round the problem if you don't have access to the php.ini?

Nick

[deleted]

I'm not sure if it'll work, but you might be able to overwrite PHP's default cache header with on of your own, effectively changing the cache header without editing the php.ini...

Anon

yes but you have to change the headers before you print anything to the screen... so it is always tricky and never works the way you would expect.

pragma and cache_(limiter|control) are the headers you should look at.

Anon

23, fool... representin tha south bay. WEESSSST SIIIIIIDE

knickerlas

When you say 'representing' do you mean you belong to some kind of youth organization or would this be some kind of bizarre american patriotism?

Nick

Anon

both.

yo mammy knew what i was talkin about though.

and by 'mammy' i am referring to your maternal parent that i engaged in sexual intercourse with...

knickerlas

Then you're stranger than I thought:
She's dead.

[deleted]

Nick, Michael,
enough already. This is getting pathetic.

Anon

http://www.inflash.com/article.php?sid=73&mode=thread&order=0

But I don't get it. Since I am trying to do the same thing, perhaps someone could look at this site and tell me what it means.

It seems to work!!!

andrew wrote:

Is there a way to prevent the page from expriring when using sessions? When I'm using sessions, the "back" button no longer works.

Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew