Sessions, cant read info

[mdj]

Hi All,

I have the following in a script which creates a session when they log in.

if($login_check > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
	foreach( $row AS $key => $val ){
		$$key = stripslashes( $val );
	}
		// Register some session variables!
		session_register('first_name');
		$_SESSION['first_name'] = $first_name;
		session_register('surname');
		$_SESSION['surname'] = $surname;
		session_register('email');
		$_SESSION['email'] = $email;
		session_register('special_user');
		$_SESSION['userlevel'] = $userlevel;

	mysql_query("UPDATE customers SET last_login=now() WHERE username='$username'");

	header("Location: login_success.php");
}
} else {
	echo "You could not be logged in! Either the username and password do not match or you have not validated your membership!<br />
	Please try again!<br />";
	include 'login_form.html';
}

I presume it creates the session, as it continues to the login_success.php page and also updates the last_login field in the database, and i get no errors, but the following code, which is the login_success.php page doesnt display any of the information.

<?
session_start();

echo "Welcome ". $_SESSION['first_name'] ." ". $_SESSION['surname'] ."! You have made it to the members area!<br /><br />";

echo "Your user level is ". $_SESSION['user_level']." which enables you access to the following areas: <br />";

if($_SESSION['user_level'] == 0){
	echo "- Forums<br />- Chat Room<br />";
}
if($_SESSION['user_level'] == 1){
	echo "- Forums<br />- Chat Room<br />- Moderator Area<br />";
}

echo "<br /><a href=logout.php>Logout</a>";

?>

[mcjwb]

Hi,

I'm new to sessions so I could be wrong, but I thought I'd reply since no one else has!

It is my understanding that you have to regester the session variables on each script. Which means on your login_success.php page you will need to add;

session_register('first_name');
session_register('surname');
session_register('email');
session_register('special_user');

Also the session_regester function will start a session so you do not have to call start_session, allthough no harm is done in doing so.

Just another note, I thought you had put session regesters at the very start of the php script definately before the header. In your first script you have some ifs and whiles etc then session_register and then a header. If you could clarify this for me it would be appreciated - as I said I'm new to sessions!!

hope this helps

[kinadian]

If you use the format $SESSION['var'] then you do not need to register the sesions variables. It's possible that there is a problem if you do register than try to use $SESSION['var'].

Try removing your session_register commands, and see if that works.

--kinadian

[mdj]

Hi Guys,

I've tried both senarios but im still getting no output.

I've been reading other threads and trying different ideas, but its still not giving me any output!

AAHHHH!!!

[mdj]

This is really starting to bug me now.

There doesnt seem to be any info.

the file login_success.php now contains only the following code, which is supposed to display all the current session info but it doesnt display anything, so there is obviously no info in the session,

<?
session_start(); 
header("Cache-control: private"); //IE 6 Fix 
echo "Sessions: <pre>"; 
print_r($_SESSION); 
echo "</pre>"; 

?>

The complete original file that preceeds this is listed below.

<?php require_once('Connections/smslist.php'); ?>
<?php
session_start();  // Start Session
header("Cache-control: private");
// Conver to simple variables
$username = $HTTP_POST_VARS['username'];
$password = $HTTP_POST_VARS['password'];

if((!$username) || (!$password)){
	echo "Please enter ALL of the information! <br />";
	exit();
}

// check if the user info validates the db
$checkSQL = ("SELECT * FROM customers WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' AND activated='1'");

mysql_select_db($database_smslist, $smslist);
$sql = mysql_query($checkSQL, $smslist) or die(mysql_error());

$sql_check = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM customers WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' AND activated='1'");
$login_check = mysql_num_rows($sql_check);

if($login_check > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
	foreach( $row AS $key => $val ){
		$$key = stripslashes( $val );
	}
		// Register some session variables!
		session_register('username');
		$_SESSION['username'] = $username;
		session_register('surname');
		$_SESSION['surname'] = $surname;
		session_register('email');
		$_SESSION['email'] = $email;
		session_register('userlevel');
		$_SESSION['userlevel'] = $userlevel;

	mysql_query("UPDATE customers SET last_login=now() WHERE username='$username'");

	header("Location: login_success.php");
}
} else {
	echo "You could not be logged in! Either the username and password do not match or you have not validated your membership!<br />
	Please try again!<br />";
	include 'login_form.html';
}
?>

Am I missing something here!! Or is there a php.ini setting thats not configured properly????

[mcjwb]

If you are using windows you need to set the session.save_path variable in php.ini to some folder eg C:\sessions

Also the session.cookie_domain needs to be set to your url, (I think!) eg http://localhost/

If you've already done this or you are using unix,why not find the file created by the session open it in a text editor and see if the username, password, etc are there?

Sorry if you've tried this already but I'm no expert and I know how frustrating it can be when things refuse to work!!

[mdj]

Hi There,

Thanks for the info, but as you said, i've already tried this, and im runnning on unix, the sessions are saved to the /tmp directory.

[icaro]

you use
// Register some session variables!
session_register('username');
$SESSION['username'] = $username;
session_register('surname');
$SESSION['surname'] = $surname;
session_register('email');
$SESSION['email'] = $email;
session_register('userlevel');
$SESSION['userlevel'] = $userlevel;

i would do that without that $_SESSION[things] = $things;
you do not need this lines.. try this:

  // Register some session variables!
    session_register('username');
    session_register('surname');
    session_register('email');
    session_register('userlevel');

and you just need to be sure that there is a variable $username ($surname, ....) with some value that you wants to save

if it doesnt help, try your scripts in another server to be sure that its not a php configuration problem..

[mdj]

Hi,

I will give that a try, can you tell me though,

do the variables need to be posted from the previous page in a form, or can they be called from the database?

[icaro]

there is no difference, the variables just needs to exist in your script:

<?php

session_start();
session_register('variable');

$variable = 'something from any place';
$variable = 33;

?>

session will save the last value variables hold. in this example it will hold integer 33 for $variable.

[mdj]

OK,

This is what i have acertained so far.

The script is creating the session from the following section of the script.

		// Register some session variables!
		session_register('username');
		session_register('surname');
		session_register('email');
		session_register('userlevel');

It creates the session which contains the following info

username|s:1:"m";surname|s:1:"P";email|s:18:"mark@****4.me.uk";userlevel|s:1:"0";

Then when i exit this script it runs the following, which displays the session id, but wont display any of the information inside the session thats created.

<? 
session_start(); 
echo "Your session ID is <strong>". session_id() ."</strong>"; 
echo "<a href='killsess.php'>kill session</a>";
echo "Sessions: <pre>"; 
print_r($_SESSION); 
echo "</pre>";
?> 

Any ideas how to access the information in the session and also why it wont display the contents of the session, This seems to be the final hurdle! Hopefully!!

[icaro]

<?php
// THIS IS file1.php


// tell php to save this session
session_start();

// tell php what variables i want to save in this session
session_register('username');
session_register('surname');
session_register('email');
session_register('userlevel');


// setting values or getting it from db/files/get/post or just seting like here:
$username = 'TestName';
$surname = 'a';
$email = 'b';
$userlevel = 2;


header("Location: file2.php"); // going to other place with no variables - could be a link
?>

<?php

// THIS IS file2.php
session_start();

print_r($_SESSION);

echo "<br>$username $email<br>";
// or
echo "<br>{$_SESSION[username]} {$_SESSION[email]}<br>";

?>

to me it prints

Array ( [username] => TestName [surname] => a [email] => b [userlevel] => 2 )
TestName b

TestName b

---

is it better now?
🙂