SESSION won't read?

LordShryku

I'm so completely and utterly confused.....

First, when the user logs in, I have
session_start();
$_SESSION['ALLOW'] = $UserID;

Then on the next page, I have
if(isset($_SESSION['ALLOW'])) { do this }

It never does it. It won't read the session for some reason. It creates the session, but just won't read it.

The session always ends up as a file named sess_$session_id
And inside the file, it shows ALLOW|s:4:"UserID"

That looks right to me. Any ideas why this won't read right?

tha_mink

One thing is that you need to make sure that every page that uses sessions has the line
session_start();
Even if your session is started...you still need to call session_start();

I always use session_register and session_is_registered and that works fine so...

session_start();
//if allow isn't registered...lets register it...
if (!session_is_registered("ALLOW")) 
{
     $ALLOW = $user_id;
     session_register("ALLOW");
} else {
     echo $_SESSION['ALLOW'];
}

LordShryku

Well, I tried that too. When I use session_start() on the second page, it creates a new session and ignores the session(and the variables) from the first page.

tha_mink

Really? cause here is what the manual has to say about that...

php session_start()

LordShryku

That's what confuses me so much about this. According to the manual, and my past experience, this SHOULD work. Only thing that is different from this and every other time I've done it, is that it's on Windows instead of Linux. Maybe it's a config issue?

tunage

isset works fine for me

if (isset($_SESSION['allow']))
{
let them in......
}
else cya!

instead of $_SESSION['ALLOW'] = $UserID;

You might need to be using $SESSION['ALLOW'] = $POST['UserID'] (or GET)

Hope this helps
😃

LordShryku

Well, that's not the problem. It creates the session and the variables fine. It just won't read it on a second page. I made a sample page to test if sessions are working, and as long as I use one session_start() and read it from the same page, I have absolutely no problems.

The problem is happening when it gets to the second page, and it hits session_start(), it creates a new session(blank, no variables) and tries reading from that session_id, instead of the previos page's session. I dunno why....

tunage

Have you got session_start() as the first line of code?

Thats the only thing io can think of, unless theres a config in php that says how long a session var is valid, not sure if that can be edited so theyre only valid per page, seems pointles but you never know.....

LordShryku

Well, the first page, no. It's way down in the code, but that's all database validation, then create the session, then do a header redirect. The second page starts with

<?
session_start();
if(!session_is_registered("ALLOW")) {
header("Location: blah di blah...

This is in the ini file....

session.cache_limiter = nocache
session.cache_expire = 60

Maybe these need to be commented out?

tunage

Does changing session_is_registered to isset make a difference? Also, on the first page put session_start() before anything else, as i think you need to start a session before you do any outputting.

LordShryku

Nope, tried isset also. And the session_start comes before any output. That whole first page is database query, if everything is right, then -> session_start(), redirect. I'm just wondering why a new session is created once you get to the second page and call session_start?

suntra

Does the broswer you use allows cookies to be set ?

LordShryku

Yeah, we have it built into the IE5.5 image we use.

suntra

If you get PHP info with phpinfo() can you see the session ID ?

LordShryku

Not sure how that would be labeled.....

Here's all the Session info from phpinfo...

session
Session Support enabled

Registered save handlers files user

Directive Local Value Master Value
session.auto_start Off Off
session.bug_compat_42 On On
session.bug_compat_warn On On
session.cache_expire 60 60
session.cache_limiter nocache nocache
session.cookie_domain no value no value
session.cookie_lifetime 0 0
session.cookie_path / /
session.cookie_secure Off Off
session.entropy_file no value no value
session.entropy_length 0 0
session.gc_dividend 100 100
session.gc_maxlifetime 1440 1440
session.gc_probability 1 1
session.name PHPSESSID PHPSESSID
session.referer_check no value no value
session.save_handler files files
session.save_path C:\session C:\session
session.serialize_handler php php
session.use_cookies On On
session.use_only_cookies Off Off
session.use_trans_sid Off Off

tha_mink

Your problem seems to be that your second script is not receiving the $PHPSESSID from the first page. For some reason. Ususally php passes this variable in a cookie and when cookies aren't available, php just tacks it on the end of the url as a GET string.

So its sent automaticall through the $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS array. You should start by finding out if this variable is getting to the second page. Because if you are calling session start on the second page and PHP is starting a NEW session, it's probabaly due to the fact that there is no $PHPSESSID. So start there.