How to save and retrieve on a session cookie?

snowbrasil

Hi guys,
I am a beginner in PHP so I count on your help.
How can I get a parameter from a URL and make that a session cookies, so it gets carried out throught the session and if the users fills any form on my site it will retrieve that data from the session cookie and add that to my form?

example.
URL: http:www.mysite.com/index.php?parameter=xyz

users browse the site and decides to subscribe a newsletter...

then I will have a hidden form tag that would have that XYZ info and this will be sent with the form by email.

I know how to make the form and send it by email. I Just need help to save that info on a session cookie and retrieve it.

Thnaks a lot for helping.

EDITED: I STILL NEED HELP. Please go to last post

TimTimTimma

I am confused, are you wanting to store the information in a SESSION or a COOKIE? both are similar but different in performance

snowbrasil

For now, it doesn't need to be a cookie. Just a session.

TimTimTimma

Originally posted by snowbrasil
Hi guys,
I am a beginner in PHP so I count on your help.
How can I get a parameter from a URL and make that a session cookies, so it gets carried out throught the session and if the users fills any form on my site it will retrieve that data from the session cookie and add that to my form?

example.
URL: http:www.mysite.com/index.php?parameter=xyz

users browse the site and decides to subscribe a newsletter...

then I will have a hidden form tag that would have that XYZ info and this will be sent with the form by email.

I know how to make the form and send it by email. I Just need help to save that info on a session cookie and retrieve it.

Thnaks a lot for helping.

to start a session first off you must use session_start(); at the VERY TOP of your php script, no where else will do, I always get errors otherwise. next use the $_SESSION[] super global, to store the info you want inside so for instance if you wanted a session to count how many times you visited a page you would use the following code

<?php
session_start(); //notice function at the top!

if($_SESSION['count'] == 0){
 header("Location: $PHP_SELF?".SID."");
 $_SESSION['count']++;
}else{
 echo "Welcome back; You have visited this page ".
 $_SESSION['count']." times!";
 $_SESSION['count']++;
}

?>

Now, refresh 6-7 times then copy the url with the PHPSESSID then close the browser, and reopen and visit the page again. The session has ended and started a new one, HOWEVER, if you enter the url you copied with the session ID, suddenly the session picks up where it left off. This is very useful for sending information across a site, that doesn't change often. All the information you could ever want to save, is in that very important session. Alot of bulletin boards use sessions to send over information like user access lvls etc. I remember when a administrator on a forum I visited posted a url in his forums with his session, All I had to do was copy his session_id insert into my browser, and I had all the same access and privilages he did. each user gets a unique session, so a session in a since, should be proteted like a password..

snowbrasil

This is great and I want to test that. But before, coul dyou tell me how to retrieve that info too and add to a hidden form variable?

Thanks

TimTimTimma

<?php
$_SESSION
?>

is a super global, and is a variable, it can be echoed, just like a vairble,so if you have the following sessions registered and want to echo them all you need to do is..

<?php
echo $_SESSION['your_ip'];
echo $_SESSION['username'];
echo $_SESSION['site_title'];
?>

Sessions can also be set just as variables

<?php
session_start();
if(!isset($_SESSION['your_ip'])){
$_SESSION['your_ip'] = $_ENV['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}else{
echo "Your IP ".$_SESSION['your_ip'].";
}
?>

Sessions acting as common variables allow you to store data without worrying about server performance (unlike mysql, that IS good, but after asking for so many queries it tends to slow down) with sessions you ask and ask away and it doesn't affect your scripts performance.

So to easily answer your question just echo the session into the hidden field.

snowbrasil

Thanks for all this info.
I was able to test and make it work. Store the session info and echo it.

But now I am trying to implement to what I really need.
The thing is that my site uses frames.
So I tried to change the index page to a php file and on th eindex.php open the session. But then I get error

Warning: session_start(): Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by (output started at /home/snowbras/public_html/index-valle-nevado.php:8) in /home/snowbras/public_html/index-valle-nevado.php on line 9

Is there a way to do that with frames??

The form is going to be on one of the frames.

Is it going to work?

Thanks

TimTimTimma

postnthe code of the pages you are talking about..

Remember, session_start(); must go before ALL ELSE, if there are headers above it, you must put session_start() above those headers...

snowbrasil

It's on the top of the file. The thing is that the file calls a frameset. So I don't know if it will work.

<?php
session_start(); //notice function at the top!

if($SESSION['count'] == 0){
$SESSION["ref"] = $_GET["ref"];
}

?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>SNOW BRASIL - Snowboarding & Snowtrips - Snowboard . fotos . vídeos

. equipamento . viagem</TITLE>

</HEAD>

document.write('<frameset rows="34,103," BORDER=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 framespacing="0" ><frame name="search" src="../snowbrasil/search.htm" FRAMEBORDER="NO" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="NO"><frame name="top" src="../snowbrasil/top.htm" FRAMEBORDER="NO" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="NO"><frameset cols="128," BORDER=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 framespacing="0"><frameset rows="340,*" BORDER=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 framespacing="0"><frame name="menu" src="/snowbrasil/menu.htm" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" noresize> <frame name="amazon" src="/amazon_rotator.htm" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" noresize></frameset><frame name="principal" src="/snowbrasil/snowtrips/ValleNevado/Valle1.htm" marginwidth="5" marginheight="5" scrolling="auto" frameborder="no" noresize><\/frameset><\/frameset>')

</script>

</HTML>

TimTimTimma

what are you wanting to do with the iframe? if the iframe is a phpfile, and it needs the session info thats in the index file, you need to include the session info in variable form in the url. Otherwise explain to me what the iframe is for

P.S. ok, is it just me, or is your iframe...a frame, in a frame, in a frame, in a frame in a frame?

snowbrasil

It's not an iframe. Frames. I use it on thw whole site.
So the guy gets on the site on an index page which is actually a frameset. But since this is the first page, that's the one that needs to start the session and get the parameter.

Then the user will click on CONTATO to send me a form. That's where I want to use that info.

The page is working now.
http://www.snowbrasil.com.br/index-valle-nevado.php?google

But when I go to CONTATO see menu on top...
it's not carrying or retrieving the ref parameter.

http://www.snowbrasil.com.br/snowbrasil/snowtrips/ValleNevado/valle_contato.php

I put an echo there, but it doesn't show.

TimTimTimma

P.S. oh gosh its such a shame I cant read whatever the hell that language is...

snowbrasil

It's portuguese. But you don't really need to know what it says.

snowbrasil

Wait a second, let me try something here.
I think I got it.

snowbrasil

Look guys,

I will explain what is going on and you will understand the problem.

If you go to
http://www.snowbrasil.com.br/index-valle-nevado.php?ref=google

and look at the source of the index file. (don't right click - choose source from the browser menu)
You will see on the source that it says parameter=google
so this means the session is working for th eidnex page.

But if you scroll down the main page with the form, and look at the bottom it says parameter= NOTHING

so, I am not being able to retrieve the value from the session there.

Do you get it?

Thanks a lot for helping

TimTimTimma

ok, yea, you need to pass the variable through whatever iframe is calling it, it SHOULD be a php file, so simply in the iframe make the link be whatever.php?ref=".$_SESSION['ref']." that should solve your problem 🙂

snowbrasil

So, wouldn't be easier to use a cookie instead of a session in this case?

snowbrasil

Tim, thanks, but it didn't work.

For some reason the value didn't get passed out.

<html>
<head>

<title>SNOWBRASIL.com ::: Snowboarding & Snowtrips ::: Valle Nevado</title>

<frameset rows="34,103," BORDER=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 framespacing="0" ><frame name="search" src="../snowbrasil/search.htm" FRAMEBORDER="NO" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="NO"><frame name="top" src="../snowbrasil/top.htm" FRAMEBORDER="NO" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="NO"><frameset cols="128," BORDER=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 framespacing="0"><frameset rows="340,*" BORDER=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 framespacing="0"><frame name="menu" src="/snowbrasil/menu.htm" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" noresize> <frame name="amazon" src="/amazon_rotator.htm" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" noresize></frameset><noframes></noframes><frame name="principal" src="/snowbrasil/snowtrips/ValleNevado/valle_contato.php?ref="$_SESSION['ref']" " marginwidth="5" marginheight="5" scrolling="auto" frameborder="no" noresize><\/frameset><\/frameset>>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000099" background="snowbrasil/back.jpg">
<br>

parameter=google

</body>
</html>

I tried with the dot before the variable name and without a dot and got the same.

I still don't understand what's wrong.

Could somebody help me please?

Thanks

snowbrasil

I was able to tget the session to that frame by adding ?ref=<?php echo $_SESSION['ref']?> to the frameset.

But this doesn't completely solve my problem. I mean, what if the user clicks on other links on the site and then later goes and fills a form? Then the session doesnt work anymore.

So what am I supposed to do? Add the ?ref=<?php echo $_SESSION['ref']?> to every links on the pages???

My site is basically all with .htm files.... Do I have to rewrite all files, add the code that open sessions to every page and rename all to php???

I believe there is a better way to do that?

no?

Please help!!!

Thanks so much.

snowbrasil

Guys, this is probably a simple thing for you but not for me, I have just started. Please help me here, I really need to get this thing working?

Thanks a lot for helping.