need to login twice?

[robinjohn]

Hi Guys, I created a basic login page, but for some reason when I try to initially login the login page is just reloaded instead of accessing the system.

After that first attempt, if I try to login again I'm successfully brought to the test system.

So it sounds like a session problem to me, but I can't see where the problem is 8-/

Here's ye olde code

<?php
require_once ('database.php');
require_once('functions.php');

if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == "POST"){
	$errors = array();
	if(empty($_POST['password'])){
		$errors = array_merge($errors, "Please enter a password");
	}
	if(empty($_POST['username'])){
		$errors = array_merge($errors, "Please enter a username");
	}

	if(!count($errors)){
		$md5Password = md5(trim($_POST['password']));

		$query = "SELECT username from users WHERE password = '$md5Password' AND username ='" . $_POST['username'] . "'"; 

		$result = mysql_query("$query") or die("<BR>Query failed <BR>" . "MySQL Error Number : " . mysql_errno() . " Error : " . mysql_error() . "<BR>" . "<a href=\"javascript:history.back()\">Previous Page</a>"); 
		$countOfRows = mysql_num_rows($result); 

		if ($countOfRows == 1){	
			$query = "select testValue from testTable where userID = \"" . trim($_POST['username']) . "\"";
			$result = mysql_query($query) or die("<BR>Query failed <BR>" . "MySQL Error Number : " . mysql_errno() . " Error : " . mysql_error() . "<BR>Query = " . $query . "<BR>" . "<a href=\"javascript:history.back()\">Previous Page</a>"); 

			$regions = array();
			while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
    			$regions = array_merge($regions, $row[0]);  
  			}

			// initiate a session
			session_start();

			// registering session variables
			session_register("SESSION");
			session_register("REGION");

			$_SESSION['count'] = 0;


			// including the username
			$_SESSION['SESSION'] = $_POST['username'];
			$_SESSION['REGION'] = $regions;

			mysql_free_result ( $result );

			// redirect to protected page
			header("Location: " . $path . "test.php?closed=0");
		}
	}

}
?>

Has anyone come across something like this? Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated - and sorry about the formatting, when I copy it in it seems to lose its spacing 8-/

[sysera]

I usually include in each page of mine after the login a 'headers.php' that contains something similar to the following:

<?php
session_start();
$username = $_SESSION['username'];
?>

This method seems to work very well for me. The only time I run into trouble, is when a page on my website or an included file occassionally doesn't contain an include for this 'headers.php' file.

[robinjohn]

Hi Sysera,
yeah I try and do something similar, in every page I want to use the info that should have been saved in the session variable I include:

session_register("SESSION");
if (! isset($_SESSION['SESSION'])) {
// redirecting user to the login page
Header("Location: " . $path . "index.php");
exit;
}

So in this case SESSION would contain the username of a successfully logged in user.
cheers for the feedback!
Robin.