session variable inside include files?

chucklarge

Hi,
I am having trouble with session variables inside include files. I have a login into a secure area of my site. When a user logs in to the site, session variables are set. So in a secure page, i 'include' several files, but those session variables do not seem to work in the included pages. when i say 'secure' i really just mean a user is logged in, i am sure this isn't the most secure site. here is an example.

in my login.php, session variables are set

$_SESSION['status'] = $status;  // 1 = logged in, 0 = not
$_SESSION['username'] = $username;

somesecurepage.php has a check if a session is started

<?PHP
session_start();

if (!isset($_SESSION['status'])) 
{	// if session check fails, invoke error handler
	header("Location: error.php?e=2");
	exit();
}
$username  = $_SESSION['username']; 
?>
<html>
<body>

<? include('leftnavbar.php'); ?>

<div id="mainbody">
<p>some content</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

the included leftnavbar.php which is also secure

<?PHP
 session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION['status'])) 
{	// if session check fails, invoke error handler
	header("Location: error.php?e=2");
	exit();
}
$username  = $_SESSION['username']; 
?>

<div id="leftnavbar">
<p>Logged in as: <br />
<? echo $username;?></p>
</div>

Ok, so first off, if i am logged in and manually go to the leftnavbar.php page, it works fine, passes teh 'status' check and echos the username.

When i 'include' this page from a secure page, it fails the status check. if i take that code out, it does not echo the username.

I have tried various things like not putting 'session_start', not declaring $username, etc. but nothing seems to work.

Can someone please tell me what i am doing incorrectly?

Thanks So Much!
Chuck

Installer

Edit: Start by redoing your header() line, paying attention to http header format and your syntax highlighting (to tip you off to syntax errors).

chucklarge

Hi, Thanks but the header works just fine. I was just trying to type in an example to get my point across for an example here, and when posted, it added a mess to it. the problem is session variables are not carried into the the include file. any ideas?

Thanks,
chuck

Installer

Sorry, I didn't read your post carefully enough. Please ignore my (stupid) post.

Installer

I simplified your pages' code and put in some echo statements to follow what was happening. Everything worked right for me. Both when I navigate to "leftnavbar.php" and to "somesecurepage.php" the variables echo their proper values. I'm pretty sure that nothing I changed would affect the behavior. The code I used:
login.php

session_start();
echo 'login.php' . '<br />';
$status = 1;
$username = 'tester';
$_SESSION['status'] = $status;  // 1 = logged in, 0 = not 
$_SESSION['username'] = $username;
echo "\$_SESSION['status']: " . $_SESSION['status'] . '<br />';
echo "\$_SESSION['username']: " . $_SESSION['username'] . '<br />';
echo '$status: ' . $status . '<br />';
echo '$username: ' . $username . '<br />';
echo '-------------------------' . '<br />';

somesecurepage.php

session_start();
echo 'somesecurepage.php' . '<br />';
if (!isset($_SESSION['status']))  

{ 
    header("Location: error.php?e=2"); 
    exit(); 
} 
$username  = $_SESSION['username'];
echo "\$_SESSION['status']: " . $_SESSION['status'] . '<br />';
echo "\$_SESSION['username']: " . $_SESSION['username'] . '<br />';
echo '$username: ' . $username . '<br />';
echo '-------------------------' . '<br />';
include('leftnavbar.php');

leftnavbar.php

session_start();
echo 'leftnavbar.php' . '<br />';
if (!isset($_SESSION['status']))  

{ 
    header("Location: error.php?e=2"); 
    exit(); 
} 
$username  = $_SESSION['username'];
echo "\$_SESSION['status']: " . $_SESSION['status'] . '<br />';
echo "\$_SESSION['username']: " . $_SESSION['username'] . '<br />';
echo '$username: ' . $username . '<br />';
echo '-------------------------' . '<br />';