multiple sessions with one client?

Jeremy_North

Hi All,
This may be a foolish question .... but
Is it possible to have multiple simultaneous sessions with the same client in php?

Ive got a web application set up (based on mapserver/chameleon www.maptools.com). In order to server maps, the mapserver app uses the _session var to control certian things. It only uses the session var in very specific instances (ie servin a map). I want to preserve my previously set session info ... Im my simplistic view of things if I could have a second session var, this would be easy.
Is this possible? Impossible? Is there another way around this?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

visualAd

You can use the session_name() function to give the session a new name. This will cause PHP to send a new cookie. I have never used this before so I am not sure whether it leaves the old session cookie behind. You may have to do some investigation

Before using it, I would use the session_write_close() function to save and close the old session.

Jeremy_North

Hey,
Thanks for the reply. Ill give that a go ....

however ...

This will cause PHP to send a new cookie.
I thought that by using $_session the info is stored server side, not in a cookie ...

visualAd

The data is. But the server needs a way of identifying the client and this is acheived through use of a cookie which contains a session ID.

thorpe

I still dont understand why you need another session array. can you answe as to why?

devinemke

thorpe wrote:
I still dont understand why you need another session array.

i agree. why bother with a whole separate session? the $_SESSION array is just like any other array in that it can be multi-dimensional (nesting arrays within arrays). i don't see why you can't just store everything in a single group of nested arrays. i think this would be a much better to organzine the user data.

Jeremy_North

Thanks for the replys,
As I mentioned, Im using a pre-built application (called chameleon) to server maps and the associated tools (zoom, query etc). I was attempting to wire in non-mapping functionality to the pages related to my site but not to chameleon. I was under the impression that chameleon essentially stoped any old session, and started a new one for it's own purposes. My thinking was if I could use a 'different' session to track non-mapping data I could have the inof persist from page to page, regardless of what the mapping application was doing (and with out tinkering with chemaleons code). However, it turns out that chameleon is operating differently than I had previously thought and I have managed to get my non-map session vars from page to page.

Thanks for the suggestions.