[Resolved] Another session problem

[Shrike]

This one has been making my head hurt for a while now.

I have 3 php classes Index.php, Login.php, Register.php. All files share one HTML template, which contains a login form and a register form. Each class extends a base class which among other things calls session_start().

Now the process goes like this:

First visit to site > display Index.php. (if no session present display login/register form otherwise display site homepage)

No session present so...

User clicks Login > execute Login.php. If login ok add some data to $_SESSION and redirect back to Index.php. If login unsuccesful redisplay HTML template with related error message.

User clicks register > execute Register.php. If register successful, login user and redirect to Index.php. If register unsuccessful redisplay HTML template with related error message.

Now it starts to get fun. On my development machine (WinXP/Apache/PHP 4.3.0) everything works as it should. On my live box (Linux/Apache/PHP 4.2.*) there are issues.

If I login from Index.php, the login works fine, I get redirected back to Index.php, but the session has gone. If I try to login from Login.php (after 1 unsuccessful attempt) the same thing happens. If I try to login from Register.php (after 1 unsuccessful register) then it works!!

From what I can see the session is only getting written when the process is Register.php > Login.php > Index.php. I have checked that the session variables are set just before Login.php does the redirect and they are. Now I am thinking about changing the architecture which is not want I want to do, but I don't have alot of choice.

Can anyone who has had a similar problem post it here so I can compare 🙂

Thanks vm

[JakesSA]

Is it destroying the session or starting a new one all together?
Are your pages in frames?

Numerous thing can cause server variable problems.

Post some code, so we can have a look!

J

[Shrike]

Ok here's a the relevant bits of code. I was trying to avoid this since theres alot of code and it does work on my Windows machine 🙂

This is the constructor of Index.php

function homepage(){
  // This line loads an array of system variables
  $this->env = $this->loadConfig();
  // This line runs a function in the base class (shown below)
  $this->uData = $this->getUserPermissions();
  // This if/else checks an array (if present then session is ok)
  if($this->uData['tx_app_forenm'] != ''){
    $this->showUserDetails();
  }else{
  /* Kill any session */
  session_destroy();
  // This shows the HTML template
  $this->showForm();
  }
}

This next bit is at the very end of Login.php. If the user has got to here then login was successful

/* Write some useful data to the session */
$_SESSION['uid'] = $this->user_data['id_app'];
$_SESSION['cd_access'] = $this->user_data['cd_access'];
$_SESSION['id_contract'] = $this->user_data['id_contract'];
$_SESSION['cd_app_status'] = $this->user_data['cd_app_status'];
session_write_close();
$this->getRefererInfo();
if(!isset($this->referer['path'])){
  header("Location: ".$this->env['systemurl']."/".$this->env['index']);
}else{
  header("Location: ".$this->referer['path']);
}
exit();

This is the method in the base class which all inheriting classes need to call to get the session data

function getUserPermissions(){
  session_start();
  $this->sql = new SqlQueryHandler();
  /* Get a record from the db. based on session ID */
  $this->uData = $this->sql->getMySqlSet("SELECT
    t1.id_app, t1.cd_access, t1.tx_log_email, t1.tx_app_forenm, t1.tx_app_surnm, max(t2.ts_logon)
    FROM applicant as t1, app_logon as t2
    WHERE t1.id_app = '".$_SESSION['uid']."'
    AND t2.id_app = t1.id_app
    GROUP BY id_app
  ");
return $this->uData;
}

I might have made some typos getting this into the forum.

By the way there is nothing relevant in Register.php apart from the fact that it lays up the same HTML page as Login and Index. Remember when taking the path Register > Login > Index everything works fine both on Win/*nix 😕

In answer to your questions, no the pages are not in frames, and the session is destroyed if not complete.

[JakesSA]

From what I can make out, you are taking two different paths in your class hierarchy to get the user registered in your session environment.

You are starting your session in the base class, do you start it again in any of you derived methods, where you might have helper methods dependent on one another, especially in the following path :

Register > Login > Index

[Shrike]

Nope theres discernable code difference at all, and that is the thing thats really hurting my head. All 3 files contain the same method for displaying the form (but each class creates a different error message depending on what you are doing)

I think I'm going to have to write another page which mimicks the function of Index.php see whether that works. If it does then the problem must be to do with how the session cookie gets written. I've read a few reports about session cookie behaviour but the solutions given there don't work for me.

I'll keep updating this thread in case anyone else has these problems 🙂

[Shrike]

Just to close this thread down. The problem I had was in a piece of code I got from the PHP Builder articles area, which sets up mysql_set_save_handler(). The session_read() function has a slight error, which only occurs on Linux (causes a segfault). The return value of the function needs to be

return '';

rather than just

return;

This is mentioned in the comments, but maybe someone else has this problem. The code was by Ying, and is otherwise a great little include file 🙂