Scope issue with session vars

[Anon]

Hey all..

THis seemed simple enough.. create a user login.. then if username/pass is correct start a session and set the vars i need..

<?

  $connection = odbc_connect("intradb","dbaccess","dbaccess");
  $query = "Select username, password, group, SecLev from users ";
  $query .= "where username = '$username' and password = '$password'";
  $result = odbc_do($connection, $query);

if((odbc_result($result, 1) == $username) and (odbc_result($result, 2) == $password))
{

session_start();
session_register('name');
session_register('group');
session_register('seclevel');


$name = odbc_result($result, 1);
$group = odbc_result($result, 3);
$seclevel = odbc_result($result, 4);

echo "<script language='JavaScript'>window.location.replace('http://www.spectrumglobalonline.com/intranet/mainmenu.php')</script>"; 

}
else
{

echo "<script language='JavaScript'>window.location.replace('http://www.spectrumglobalonline.com/intranet/index2.php')</script>"; 

}

odbc_close($connection);

?>

problem is that when i try to use $name, $group, or $seclevel on any other pages I get an undefinded var message.. I think this is just a scope problem but my understanding was that session vars are global when set.

If someone could shed some light on this I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[Anon]

Try find i manual for PHP function 'session_set_save_handler'.
And i gues, You don't need to use javascript in Your code, instead use:
header("Location:your_chosen_page.php$param1=$param1&param2=$param2");

Function location.replace() makes the 'history' page unavable by clicking 'Back' button. - maybe You need this?

[Anon]

I can look that up. But that does not answer my question.. Are you saying that that code is wrong??? Because as per reading it seems like that should be correct. the syntax is not that tough and session is stated as being global. If they are not is there a way to set them that way..

Thanks

[servo]

Things to check:

1) are you calling session_start() on EVERY page that you're trying to access the variables from?

2) are sessions enabled in your php.ini? They are by default... but if you're using a third-party ISP you can't rely on it. Try checking by calling the phpinfo() function.

3) you either have to set session.usecookies to be "On" in your php.ini (again, the default, but you might double-check), or pass the session id as a query string in the URL of links to other pages (or compile your PHP with --enable-track-vars and --track-sid in order to do it transparently... supposedly... I have yet to get this later method to work)

Other than that, without seeing the code on the subsequent pages, it's hard to know what all's going on.

-Carl

[Anon]

What about reading vars of registered session by using $HTTP_SESSION_VARS["your_var"]; ?

[servo]

Forgot one important thing to check... is the browser you're testing with set to allow cookies :-)

[servo]

I've been experimenting with this, and haven't gotten it to work yet.
Do you have code to set and retrieve one's own session variable?
I believe I read that a writable session variable is defined as an array... and, indeed, if I try to access it as a string I get the familiar "Array" message... but if I try to access it as an array, nothing gets returned.