I need runtime variables - how?

axismundi

Hi,
I need to set variables that are available across sessions on the same web-server /php-installation.
In Java I would use container-level objects.
Is it also possible in PHP?
Or do I have to write the variables into the db to make them available across the sessions? This would not be a nice solution, because my app is time-critical.
Thanks for your help.
Marc

mtimdog

Well, these are the only things off top of my head to store the info to: Database, File(you might as well use a database if you're using a File), Cookie.

Now, when you say cross-session, do you mean

User opens browser, goes to website,closes browser, and then goes back to the website in a new browser window
user goes to website on server a. User navigates to website 2 on server a. (in this case, you could make a cookie for website2 also in case you did not know).

axismundi

Neither of them. I mean that kind of cross-session:
User 1 logs into Website A
User 2 logs into Website A
the php-script that is run by user 1 should make info available for user 2.

The problem actually is I need to simulate a client-server scenario. The server should distribute items on the various clients (user-sessions).
But since PHP has no functionality to run a server-program (a program that serves requests by php-page-requests, in Java servlet container or EJ😎, I need to simulate both client and server in my php page-request script.
If somebody has any input on that matter I'd appreciate to know.
Marc

axismundi

Neither of them. I mean that kind of cross-session:
User 1 logs into Website A
User 2 logs into Website A
the php-script that is run by user 1 should make info available for user 2.

mtimdog

The only answer I know of would be to write to a db, but that doesn't mean a java-like servlet doesn't exist.

AstroTeg

PHP doesn't provide these natively, but with some creativity you could create something that provides you this functionality.

You could either use a file stored somewhere where PHP can read/write to and you update the values there. But I think this will have issues when multiple folks try to read/write to the file.

The database approach is probably a bit better since it already handles reading/writing with multiple users. Its just a matter of organizing what data you want to make "global" and saving it in the database. Then its a matter of querying the data when you need it (or query for it on each page depending on your needs).