Problems Persisting Objects in Session.

[tekparasite]

• I have created a class named User and saved the file as User.inc
• Created a page page1.php where I'm instantiating an object, serializing the object, saving it to a session as $_SESSION['myUser']; and routing to a second page. Let's say page2.php.
• On page2.php, I unserialize the object saved in $_SESSION['myUser']; and print out their attributes and use some functions as well.

Everything works fine as expected; however when I hit the browser's "REFRESH", the structure breaks. Can't get any attributes and/or methods.
When I test to see if I have the serialized object in the session using isset($_SESSION['myUser']), I get true, but the structure of the object is gone.

At the beggining of each page I have done include(User.inc);

Any ideas.

// ****** User.inc *********
class User {
var $id;

// Constructor
function User() {
 return true;
}

//******* page1.php *******
$userObj = new User();
$userObj->id = "1";
$_SESSION['myUser'] = serialize($userObj);

//****** page2.php *********
$userObj = unserialize($_SESSION['myUser']);
echo($userObj->id);

// *****************************

The first time I do get the output on page2.php
// refresh
Then everything is lost.

Please help 😕 :mad:

[ereptur]

Are you putting a session_start() at the top of each page? You have to use this to "start or continue a session".

[tekparasite]

Thank you for your comments. Yes, I have included session_start() in every file I'm accessing.

It's pretty weird. Other simple variables are being saved. if I simply say. $_SESSION['test'] = "I am here "; in one page and try to retrieve it in another one it works fine the first time and every time I do a refresh; however, my class object doesn't. I seem to be loosing something..

[Jack_Slocum]

It could be a few things.

First off, you don't need to serialize the objects. It can store them just fine when you place them in the session.

Secondly, make sure session.auto_start is off in your php.ini file. This is important, so you can control when session_start() is called. That way you can include needed files first.

Third, make sure you always define session stored classes before calling session_start().

Basically your flow should be something like this:

// ********* User.inc ************ 
class User { 
var $id; 

// Constructor 
function User() { 
return true; 
} 

//********** page1.php ********** 
include('User.inc');
session_start();
$userObj = new User(); 
$userObj->id = "1"; 
$_SESSION['myUser'] = $userObj; // serialize($userObj)  no need

//********* page2.php ************ 
include('User.inc');
session_start();
// use "&" to make sure you work on the same object
$userObj = &$_SESSION['myUser']; 
echo($userObj->id); 

// ***************************** 

G'luck,

Jack

[tekparasite]

very interesting Jack..

You nailed it at "you don't need to serialize the objects"

I was already doing the rest of your guidelines like session_start to 'off' and including class definitions before the session_start call. As soon as I deleted the the serialize and unserialized functions my problem was solved.

Thank A LOT!!!! I really, really appreciate your help Jack.