[Resolved] Host not registering session variables

[tomandhannah]

The login scripts I have written work fine on my Unix box at home. (PHP 4.3.2), but when I upload it to the server (PHP 4.2.3), there are issues.

The login process appears to go fine. But the $_SESSION variables are not registering. That is, after I log in, it should say "Welcome James Smith" at the top of the page, because I have this

The session variables array after login:

$_SESSION['user'] = mysql_fetch_array($query);

echo "Welcome ";
echo $_SESSION['user']['firstname'] . " " . $_SESSION['user']['lastname'];

But it just prints "Welcome"

Also, any time I go to a page that requires some of these variables, the variables are not present and it kicks me back to login again.

Originally, I had session_register("_SESSION") at the top of the page, but this was causing an ISE 500. Now, I'm not getting the error... but the variables aren't there! Anyone have any ideas?

[lives4him06]

trying using a different variable name than $_SESSION when you register the variable name.

Im not sure on this, but $_session may be what we call in Visual Basic a reserved word. A reserved word being a variable or built in function that is 'reserved' for other use. Comparible to "explode" and "date" in PHP.

[tomandhannah]

Just for kicks, I changed $_SESSION to $mySESSION, but I can't log in at all... I log in, it takes me to the page I requested, and then back to the log in screen again, with the message that I am not logged in.

So, _SESSION does seem to be working... but not.

I think you're right that _SESSION is a reserved word, but it is reserved specifically for this!

So, I still cannot get it to work.

[tomandhannah]

Ok, I have a couple of things now:
1) I notced on the host's phpinfo(); that there's a variable called _COOKIE['PHPSESSID']. Indeed, the host is putting this cookie on my browser when I go to the site. I don't know if that piece of information changes things or not.

2) After doing some more digging: The problem seems to be that the session data is not passing from page to page, but it does keep on the login page. Normally, after the user logs in, I would redirect them to the "admin" home page... But if I change the redirect to just refresh the login page, the session data keeps and will print on the page.

Any help or advice or direction is greatly appreciated. I was hoping to hand this off to my client today! 🙁 But this one issue is the only thing keeping me from being finished! (I think 😉)

[tomandhannah]

I've narrowed the problem to register_globals being ON on the host. Whereas, my box has it set to OFF. When I turn ON register_globals on my box, I get the exact same result.

So, now I can test it on my box... which is a plus. I've tried uploading a .htaccess file with:
php_flag register_globals off
But that just results in an ISE 500, which makes me think the host does not support this line in .htaccess.

Anyone know how I can fix this script to work with register_globals ON or OFF? Or know of another work around?

[maxxd]

Could be wrong on this one, so don't quote me, but don't you have to start the session on each page? IOW, if you register the $_SESSION['user'] variable on page one, then go to page 2, you have to call the session_start(); function to actually retrieve the session variables.

pageIndex2.php ->

session_start();
echo $_SESSION['user'];

should work...

Again, I think this could be the problem.

And doesn't register_globals have something to do with the difference between typing $_SESSION[] and $HTTP_SESSION_VARS[]?

I know, it's not a terribly helpful post, but it's early and I've only had 2 cups of coffee so far...

[tomandhannah]

Maxxd,
You're right session_start(); does have to be called on every page that needs to access those variables, and I do have this at the top of EVERY page. Sorry I didn't clarify.

And I believe using $HTTP_SESSION_VARS is for pre PHP 4.1.0 builds... which is not the case here. But I tried it anyway and it did not change anything. It behaves the same using $HTTP_SESSION_VARS or $_SESSION...

I'm going crazy!

[maxxd]

tomandhannah - Figured you did have the session_start() call, it's just one of those fun stupid things that's really easy to forget. Otherwise, have you tried just changing the variables to simply $SESSION['user_firstname'] and $SESSION['user_lastname']? It's a wild stab in the dark, but the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head...

[tomandhannah]

No that's not it either... Again, the variables print on the login page itself just fine. as $_SESSION['user']['firstname'] but if I redirect the user to another page, the data is lost.

[tomandhannah]

And the drama concluded today as I narrowed and narrowed and narrowed the problem down to one line of code in the /admin/index.php file. It was a MySQL query for user submitted articles and the result set was named: $user

Since register_globals is ON both $user and $SESSION['user'] are valid variables. In this case, the latter $user was unsetting the previous $user variable from the login. This explains why the session would keep, but the data didn't across pages.

And all my other pages required some information from the $_SESSION['user'] variable. So, once this variable was replaced by the second $user... it assumed I wasn't logged in and kicked me back to the login screen, while still saying "You are logged in as: (logout)" It should have said something like: "logged in as: James Smith" but couldn't because the $user variable had changed.

So, I changed the second $user to $usersub and all is fine. Clearly, a mistake on my part... but since I usually run with register_globals OFF I hardly think much about naming consistency across multiple pages. Whew!

[lgonzalz]

You should be able to simple access the value by naming the variable the same name as the parameter. i.e. ?userId=

you define the variable as $userId. That's all.

Lynn

[tomandhannah]

Uhh... ok. I'm not sure what you're suggesting, but the problem has been solved already. Thanks.