Session Stuff

aguevara

I am trying to collect some user information which I will then use to log him/her in. I have a file called login.php which collects the information and which calls session_start() right at the top, this works the first time through (I can actually see a session ID). Once in the login.php, the user enters his name, last name, email and language. When this form is submitted, it forwards to registration.php where these values are retrieved and placed into cookies.

The problem I am having is that these variables are blank by the time I get to registration.php.

My questions are,

(1) Do I have to do session_start() at the top of each of these files or simply login.php ?

(2) Can you advise me on what I may be doing wrong ? thanks.

I am using Internet Explorer 6 as well as apache and the latest PHP.

Below please find the source code.

LOGIN.PHP
<?php
session_start();
// Works if session cookie was accepted
// echo '<br /><a href="page2.php">page 2</a>';
// Or maybe pass along the session id, if needed
echo '<br /><a href="login.php?' . SID . '">page 2</a>';
?>

<title>
Registration - Caripito.com
</title>

<?php
include 'js.php';
?>

<table width="607" border="0">
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="601"> <form method="post" action="registration.php">
<table width="387">
<tr>
<td width="72"><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
First Name </font></strong></td>
<td width="168"> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="text" name="fname" maxlength=\"10\">
</font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Last Name </font></strong></td>
<td> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="text" name="lname" maxlength=\"10\">
</font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Email </font></strong></td>
<td> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="text" name="email" maxlength=\"20\">
</font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Idioma </font></strong></td>
<td> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type=radio name="idioma" value="spanish" checked>
Español
<input type=radio name="idioma" value="english">
Inglés </font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</font></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Su
navegador debe aceptar "Cookies" para que el registro pueda
funcionar.</strong></font></p>
<p><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em><strong>Your
browser must accept Cookies in order for this to work.</strong></em></font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</font>

</body>
</html>

REGISTRATION.PHP
<?
setcookie("fname",$HTTP_POST_VARS['fname'],time() 3600);
setcookie("lname",$HTTP_POST_VARS['lname'],time() 3600);
setcookie("usuario",$HTTP_POST_VARS['fname'] . " " . $HTTP_POST_VARS['lname'],time() 3600);
setcookie("idioma",$HTTP_POST_VARS['idioma'], time() 3600);
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>
Registration
</title>

<?php
include 'js.php';
?>

</head>

<?
if ($_COOKIE["idioma"] == "english")
{
echo "<h1>Registration</h1>";
}
else
{
echo "<h1>Registro</h1>";
}
?>

<?
if ($COOKIE["idioma"] == "english")
{
echo "Dear " . $COOKIE["fname"] . " " . $COOKIE["lname"] . ",<br><br>" . "We have received your registration request.<br>";
}
else
{
echo "Estimado " . $COOKIE["fname"] . " " . $_COOKIE["lname"] . ",<br><br>" . "Hemos recibido tu registro.<br>";
}
?>

</body>
</html>

peppeto

Yes you need to put session_start(0 on every page where you use sessions
Greetings

liam

From the PHP Manual (session_id()) - User Contributed Notes:

Cybertinus
15-Oct-2003 01:28
As of php 4.3.3 you get a notice when you start an session twice. You can use session_id() to detect if a session is already started. Before you can make a script, you must know that session_id() returns false when no session ID is known. So now we can make a script witch dectect if a session is started, and if it is not, it startes an session. This is what you get then:
<?php
if(!session_id()){
session_start();
}
?>

I hope somebody can use this information.

Greetz, Cybertinus

aguevara

I have put the code below on every page, but it still will not work. When I get to the page where I am actually getting the values from the form, I don't get anything.

<?php
if(!session_id())
{
session_start();
}

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks.

PHP_apprentice

it helps when you post code to place the

tags around it so that is more easily read

<?php
session_start();
// Works if session cookie was accepted
// echo '<br /><a href="page2.php">page 2</a>';
// Or maybe pass along the session id, if needed
echo '<br /><a href="login.php?' . SID . '">page 2</a>';
?>

<html>
<head>

<title>
Registration - Caripito.com
</title>

<?php
include 'js.php';
?>

<link href="Assets/master.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</head>

<body>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4">
<tr>
<?php
include 'header.php';
?>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<?php
include 'menubar.php';
?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<table width="607" border="0">
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="601"> <form method="post" action="registration.php">
<table width="387">
<tr>
<td width="72"><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
First Name </font></strong></td>
<td width="168"> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="text" name="fname" maxlength=\"10\">
</font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Last Name </font></strong></td>
<td> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="text" name="lname" maxlength=\"10\">
</font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Email </font></strong></td>
<td> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="text" name="email" maxlength=\"20\">
</font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Idioma </font></strong></td>
<td> <strong><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type=radio name="idioma" value="spanish" checked>
Español
<input type=radio name="idioma" value="english">
Inglés </font></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</font></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Su
navegador debe aceptar "Cookies" para que el registro pueda
funcionar.</strong></font></p>
<p><font color="#0000FF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em><strong>Your
browser must accept Cookies in order for this to work.</strong></em></font></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</font>

</body>
</html>

PHP_apprentice

You could either trying using PHP Redux to handle the form on the dam page by using

$_SERVER[PHP_SELF]

in the action section of your form tag

Otherwise you can use session variables to carry your variables throughout the session


$_SESSION['$var'] = $var;

This may help

liam

It seems to me that you are trying to access the variables that you are setting on the cookie in the same page where you have created them (registration.php). They should be available only on the next loading page.

Also, I noticed that you are multiplying the time() function instead of adding time to it. I am not sure if that would be a problem though.

setcookie("fname",$HTTP_POST_VARS['fname'],time() * 3600);

aguevara

I am collecting the information on the first page (login.php) which contains a form that forwards to the second page (registration.php).

Thanks for the help, but that was not the problem. :-(

liam

Maybe I did not explain properly...

The cookie variables that you are setting on registration.php

REGISTRATION.PHP
<?
setcookie("fname",$HTTP_POST_VARS['fname'],time() 3600);
setcookie("lname",$HTTP_POST_VARS['lname'],time() 3600);
setcookie("usuario",$HTTP_POST_VARS['fname'] . " " . $HTTP_POST_VARS['lname'],time() 3600);
setcookie("idioma",$HTTP_POST_VARS['idioma'], time() 3600);
?>
<html>
.
.
.

should only be available on the next loading page and not on registration.php

REGISTRATION.PHP
.
.
.
<?
if ($_COOKIE["idioma"] == "english")
{
echo "<h1>Registration</h1>";
}
else
{
echo "<h1>Registro</h1>";
}
?>
.
.
.

Unless you load it again.

liam

On registration.php use

if ($idioma == "english")

if ($HTTP_POST_VARS['idioma'] == "english")

and then on the following pages you can use

if ($_COOKIE["idioma"] == "english")

aguevara

You are correct. I just found out what the problem might be.

If I acccess my site via http://localhost/sitename/login.php, it works OK. Of course, login.php forwards to registration.php and then onto index.php. That all works.

Now, if I access it via the registered domain name, it does not work. I am using mydomain.com which does the forwarding of www.caripito.com to my local box's IP. I believe they are not doing anything funky and just passing the information onward.

Weird. The mystery continues.