Tracking Users - Best Method?

[edh]

Hello All,

I am brand new to PHP but have a lot of experience in MivaScript.

I would like to know the best method of tracking users for logging into a site; is it by setting client-side cookies, PHP session variables, etc.; what is available in PHP for this?

In MivaScript, the best way of keeping track of users is to set a cookie on the client-side with a session id and then put this session id from the cookie in a database with a toggle for logged in or logged out. Is this also customary for PHP scripting?

Thanks,

Ed

[planetsim]

Comes down to purpose i reckon
Sessions are good for Admin kinda things for sites, where security needs to be quite high

Cookies however are good if its a members section like forums which you dont want the user loggin everytime they visit.

[edh]

I do want member's to have to log in every time.

I guess I don't understand about the session that is automatically set by PHP in the /tmp/ location in unix. Is that used for my cookie information, or do I generate my own session_id. How does one start in generating a session_id and then calling that same session_id from the cookie to preserve state?

I guess that's my question?

Thanks,

Ed