clearing a SESSION variable

[TheGorf]

I have a site with a form. When the form submits, the page is processed, and then depending on the outcome of the code, sets a session variable and then redirects to the page. That way the user never has a refresh situation where the browser alerts them about it needing to resubmit POST data.

So basically this:

    if ( $mail->Send( ) ) 
    {
        $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "Your email was sent successfully.";
        header( "location: contact.php" );
    } 
    else 
    {
        $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "An error has occurred sending your email.  Please try again later.";
        header( "location: contact.php" );
    }

Pretty straight forward.

Anyway, I need to make sure that error variable gets cleared for later use. So at the point where I echo it out to the user, I then just set it to "". Like so:

	<?PHP

//This is for any errors that occur, they can be announced here
if ( ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != "" ) or ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != null ) )
{
    $error_msg = $_SESSION['ERROR'];
    $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "";

        echo "<p>";
	echo "- ".$error_msg."<br />\n";
	echo "</p>";
}

?>

I don't get it, but any time, anywhere on the page that I try to clear the ERROR session variable, it clears it completely. No matter where I put the statement to set it to "" its like it sets it to that globally for the whole page and nothing gets printed at all.

Any ideas?

[bpat1434]

Have you tried [man]unset[/man]?

The other thing would be to move the $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "" down below the echoing....

Or modulate it so that you have a function that you call at the very end that does what you want....

[TheGorf]

This is what is really bothering be about all this. I have tried this:

 
	<?PHP

//This is for any errors that occur, they can be announced here
if ( ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != "" ) or ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != null ) )
{
    $error_msg = $_SESSION['ERROR'];
    session_unset( $_SESSION['ERROR'] );

    echo "<p>";
	echo "- ".$error_msg."<br />\n";
	echo "</p>";
}

?>

as well as this:

 
	<?PHP

//This is for any errors that occur, they can be announced here
if ( ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != "" ) or ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != null ) )
{
    $error_msg = $_SESSION['ERROR'];

    echo "<p>";
	echo "- ".$error_msg."<br />\n";
	echo "</p>";

session_unset( $_SESSION['ERROR'] );
}

?>

and this:

 
	<?PHP

//This is for any errors that occur, they can be announced here
if ( ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != "" ) or ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != null ) )
{
    echo "<p>";
	echo "- ".$_SESSION['ERROR']."<br />\n";
	echo "</p>";

    $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "";
}

?>

All of those pieces produce the same thing. The echo statement just echo's a "".

[bpat1434]

um... is that the full script, or do you call session_start() and you're just not showing us?

[TheGorf]

I see that for some reason my if statement is being evaluated as true. It should at the very least print the <p> tags. But if I put the $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "" ANYWHERE in the file, that if statment evaluates as false and nothing gets prints. Remove the variable and viola, it works again.

It's like PHP is setting the $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "" before anything else in the page.

[TheGorf]

No I am setting up the session correctly:

 
    //Start the session
    session_start( );

//This is a fix for Internet Exploder for SessionID's 
header("Cache-Control: private"); 

I can post the entire thing if you like.

[bpat1434]

Might be helpful....

[TheGorf]

This is the include.general.php file, this is only a snip because it mostly contains general use functions only a couple of which are called in the contact.php

 
<?PHP
    //Start the session
    session_start( );

//This is a fix for Internet Exploder for SessionID's 
header("Cache-Control: private");   

//Include the config for the site
include_once("includes/config.php");

//Include the class for the site database connectivity
include_once( "includes/class.database.php" );

*snip*

And this is the contact.php file:

 
**this is contact.php**
<?PHP 
require( "includes/include.general.php" );
require("class.phpmailer.php");

//The user has posted to the page to submit an email request
if ( isset( $_POST['sendmail'] ) )
{
    $from_name  = defang_urlencoding( chop_string( 30, $_POST['name'] ) );
    $from_email = defang_urlencoding( chop_string( 30, $_POST['email'] ) );
    $message    = clean_data( $_POST['message'] );

$mail = new PHPMailer();

// set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->IsSMTP(); 

// specify main and backup server, and the envelope information                       
$mail->Host         = "localhost";      
$mail->From         = $from_email;
$mail->FromName     = $from_name;
$mail->AddAddress( 
                    $CONTACT['Email'],
                    $CONTACT['Name']
                 );

// set word wrap to 50 characters
$mail->WordWrap     = 80;  

// set email format to plain text             
$mail->IsHTML( false );                   
$mail->Subject      = "[SbS] Web contact";
$mail->Body         = "This email was sent from the IP: ".get_ip( )."\n".
                      "on ".date( "M j" )." at ".date( "H:i:s" )."\n\n\n".$message;

if ( $mail->Send( ) ) 
{
    $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "Your email was sent successfully.";
    header( "location: contact.php" );
} 
else 
{
    $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "An error has occurred sending your email.  Please try again later.";
    header( "location: contact.php" );
}

}

require( "includes/overall.header.php" ); 
?>

<div class="content">
    <script language="JavaScript"> 
    function valid(form) {
    	if ((form.name.value==null)||(form.name.value=="")){
    		alert("Please enter your name.")
    		form.name.focus()
    		return false
    	}
    	if ((form.email.value==null)||(form.email.value=="")){
    		alert("Please enter your email address.")
    		form.email.focus()
    		return false
    	}

    alert("Just to be sure, is your email address:\n"+form.email.value+"\n\n Is this correct?")
}
</script>

<span class="announce">
<?PHP

//This is for any errors that occur, they can be announced here
if ( $_SESSION['ERROR'] != "" )
{
    echo "<p>";
	echo "- ->".$_SESSION['ERROR']."<-<br />\n";
	echo "</p>";

        //clear session variable for next use
        $_SESSION['ERROR'] = "";
     }

?>
</span>

<p>
Please use this form to contact us about any of the animals you see on this site, or to inquire about
the possibility of other animals.
</p>

<form action="contact.php" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data" onSubmit="return valid(this)">    
    <p>
    Please feel free to contact us by email.  This email system requires that you have a
    legitimate email address.  This email system does log your IP address, however privacy
    is important to us, so your contact information is not stored anywhere in our system.
    </p>

    Your Name:<br />
    <input type="text" name="name" size="40" maxlength="30"><br />
    <br />
    Your Email Address:<br />
    <input type="text" name="email" size="40" maxlength="30"><br />
    <br />
    Text message:<br />
    <textarea name="message" rows="8" cols="50"></textarea><br />
    <br />
    <input name="sendmail" value="submit" type="submit">
</form>
<p />
This email system is for contacting representatives of Snakes by Sasquatch only.  Any other
use is stricly prohibited. 
</div>

<?PHP require( "includes/overall.footer.php" ); ?>

[bpat1434]

I have no idea what to tell you... what you're doing is correct, I don't see anything out of the ordinary that would cause this issue... sorry.