Another post about sessions! Oh joy!

TalonFinsky

I'm confuzzled. I thought I had a relatively good grasp on the usage of sessions, but apparently I was wrong. I was just making a script to play around with, and it seems that the session is initializing (lynx asks for cookie) but the variable I'm trying to register does not seem to actually be registering.

The main thing I'm playing with is running a step by step registration process entirely on one script. Right now, it just asks for name and address and then prints them out on the third page, or at least it would if I knew what I was doing wrong 🙂

Any ideas? I'll paste the script below:

<?
    /*************************
            FIRST STEP
    **************************/

if (!isset($step))
{
  session_start();
  $pagetitle = "Sign up - step 1";
  include ("auth/header.inc");
  echo "<center>\n";
  echo "<b><i>Step 1 not completed.  Please fill out the form.</b></i><br>\n";
  echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"newuser1.php\">\n";
  echo "<table border=\"0\">\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"right\"><font color=\"white\"><b>Name</b></font></td>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" maxlength=\"20\" size=\"20\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Next\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "</table>\n";
  echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"step\" value=\"1\">";
  echo "</form>\n";
  echo "</center>\n";

  include ("auth/footer.inc");
}

/*************************
        SECOND STEP
**************************/

else if ($step == 1)
{
  session_start();
  $pagetitle = "Sign up - step 2";
  include ("auth/header.inc");
  session_register("$name");
  echo $name;
  echo "<center>\n";
  echo "<b><i>Step 1 completed.  Please fill out the form for step 2.</b></i><br>\n";
  echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"newuser1.php\">\n";
  echo "<table border=\"0\">\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"right\"><font color=\"white\"><b>Address</b></font></td>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"address\" maxlength=\"20\" size=\"20\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Next\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "</table>\n";
  echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"step\" value=\"2\">";
  echo "</form>\n";
  echo "</center>\n";

  include ("auth/footer.inc");
}


/*************************
        THIRD STEP
**************************/

else if ($step == 2 )
{
  session_start();
  $pagetitle = "Registration complete!";
  include ("auth/header.inc");
  echo $name;
  session_destroy;
}
?>

coditoergosum

session_register("$name") should be session_register('name'). When registering a session variable you don't use the $. Also, you maybe want to call session_register() directly after session_start() in each section. In fact, if I were to do it I'd call session_start() and session_register() above all of your if statements. This is how I would do it:


<?
  session_start();
  session_register('name');

/*************************
        FIRST STEP
**************************/

if (!isset($step))
{

  $pagetitle = "Sign up - step 1";
  include ("auth/header.inc");
  echo "<center>\n";
  echo "<b><i>Step 1 not completed.  Please fill out the form.</b></i><br>\n";
  echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"newuser1.php\">\n";
  echo "<table border=\"0\">\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"right\"><font color=\"white\"><b>Name</b></font></td>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" maxlength=\"20\" size=\"20\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Next\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "</table>\n";
  echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"step\" value=\"1\">";
  echo "</form>\n";
  echo "</center>\n";

  include ("auth/footer.inc");
}

/*************************
        SECOND STEP
**************************/

else if ($step == 1)
{
  $pagetitle = "Sign up - step 2";
  include ("auth/header.inc");
  echo $name;
  echo "<center>\n";
  echo "<b><i>Step 1 completed.  Please fill out the form for step 2.</b></i><br>\n";
  echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"newuser1.php\">\n";
  echo "<table border=\"0\">\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"right\"><font color=\"white\"><b>Address</b></font></td>\n";
  echo "<td align=\"left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"address\" maxlength=\"20\" size=\"20\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "<tr>\n";
  echo "<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Next\"></td>\n";
  echo "</tr>\n";
  echo "</table>\n";
  echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"step\" value=\"2\">";
  echo "</form>\n";
  echo "</center>\n";

  include ("auth/footer.inc");
}


/*************************
        THIRD STEP
**************************/

else if ($step == 2 )
{
  $pagetitle = "Registration complete!";
  include ("auth/header.inc");
  echo $name;
  session_destroy;
}
?>

Also, did you want to register "$address" to be a session var too? If so, just add session_register('address') under session_register('name').

coditoergosum

Oh, one other thing. Where you call session_destroy, you need to call it like this: session_destroy(); rather than session_destroy;.

TalonFinsky

Originally posted by coditoergosum
Also, did you want to register "$address" to be a session var too? If so, just add session_register('address') under session_register('name').

Yeah, eventually. Was just trying one variable to keep it simple for the time being.

Thanks a ton, simple syntax strikes again! 🙂

Registering the variables before they're set will cause an error, won't it? IE- the $address variable isn't set till the "2nd step" if statement, so would I even be able to register it at the very top?

I'll try it out, though. Thanks for the help!

~TF

coditoergosum

No, you want to register the session variable before it's set. It will actually work either way, but the preferred method is to register all of your session vars when the session starts. The var doesn't actually have to be set, it's basically just initialized to null when you register it if it isn't already set. Registering the session var basically just says "I am going to have a session variable called xxx"... it's kind of like allocating the variable, or declaring it if you will. You can then set it, change it, reset it later.

TalonFinsky

Very cool, ya learn something new every day! 🙂

I can see why it's the preferred method too... A lot easier to "keep all my ducks in a row" that way. 😃

Thanks again cod.

~TF