[Resolved] Posting Session Variable to Page 2

[artnow]

I made this test script to pass the session variables var_one and var_two to a linked page but it just doesn't work. I made a directory on my site's hosted server that is confirmed writable just in case their tmp is not.

Session Test Page One

<?
ini_set(session.save_path, '/path/to/a/writable/directory');
if(session_start()) { 
$_SESSION['var_one'] = "This is var_one"; 
$_SESSION['var_two'] = "This is var_two";

print_r($_SESSION['var_one']);
echo "<br>";
print_r($_SESSION['var_two']);
echo "<br>";

echo "<a href=\"session_test_two.php\">click</a>";
} else {
echo "Still not working";
}
?> 

The output is as expected, both var_one and var_two are printed on the page.

Session Test Page Two

<?
ini_set(session.save_path, '/path/to/a/writable/directory');
if(session_start()) { 
   echo "Variable One: ";
   print_r($_COOKIE['var_one']);
   echo "<br>";
   echo "Variable Two: ";
   print_r($_SESSION['var_two']);
   echo "<br>";

} else { 
     print "session missing!"; 
exit; 
}
?>

Here, only the echo statements are on the page, not the session variables. I wanted to test if $SESSION or $COOKIE made a difference but apparently not. What am I doing wrong?

[pjleonhardt]

umm.. did u define the cookie anywhere?

[procoder]

cookies and sessions are 2 differnt things.

sessions are stored on your server, cookies are stored on the user server.

php.net/globals

also print_r is for arrays, those varibles are not arrays. just use echo $_SESSION['var_one']

and why are u setting ini_set

[artnow]

Thanks for your replies. A few days ago I didn't know sessions existed and I still don't quite understand php.

This is probably a really obvious question but when you have two browser windows open to the same domain, how and when do sessions get destroyed? Is it when you close one window? Both windows? Or is it when you close all browser windows regardless of what domain they are on?

Anyway, I made the changes as follows, rebooted the computer and things worked perfectly.

Session Test Page One:

<?
session_start();
$_SESSION['var_one'] = "This is var_one"; 
$_SESSION['var_two'] = "This is var_two";
session_register("var_one");
session_register("var_two");

echo $_SESSION['var_one'];
echo "<br>";
echo $_SESSION['var_two'];
echo "<br>";

echo "<a href=\"session_test_two.php\">click</a>"; 
?> 

Session Test Page Two:

<?
session_start();

   echo "Variable One: ";
   echo $_SESSION['var_one'];
   echo "<br>";
   echo "Variable Two: ";
   echo $_SESSION['var_two'];
   echo "<br>";

?> 

[artnow]

Well, I answered my own question. Sessions exist until they are destroyed or they time out so you need to create a link on Session Test Two to a logout page:

Logout Page:

<?
session_start();

$_SESSION["var_one"]=$var_one;
$_SESSION["var_two"]=$var_two;

unset($_SESSION["var_one"]);
unset($_SESSION["var_two"]);

session_destroy();

// Redirect:
header("Location: page1.php3");
?> 

[pjleonhardt]

sessions work until the browser is closed..

If you have 2 browsers open, my best guess is that there is a different session for each one, so if you close one of them, the other session is still open..

Not 100% though.