Objects, Sessions and Questions

[Kudose]

Hello again all.

I have an object that I would like to keep persistant to minimize DB hits. This object will hold player information ... all of it. What I am doing is loading the object with the player's information once and just utilizing the object from there on out.

So, my question to you all is:

Should I serialize this object and pass it via sessions, or is serialization so buggy (got that froma post here about passing objects to sessions) that I should just pass a constant ID of the player and reload the object each page I need it ... ?

TIA.

P.S. I have never serialized anything ... I have never needed to. My pages stop loading at the point I try to assign a session variable to the object variable, so here I am. Please, forgive my stupidity on the topic. 😃

[thorpe]

You dont need to serialize an object to store it in the $SESSION array. Sessions will do that for you. You just need to save it locally before using it. eg;
page1.php

<?php
  session_start()
  $obj = new foo();
  $_SESSION['obj'] = $obj;
?>

page2.php

<?php
  session_start();
  $obj = $_SESSION['obj'];
  $obj->sayhello();
?>

You can't for instance do this on page2.php.

<?php
  session_start();
  $_SESSION['obj']->sayhello();
?>

And no.... ive never had any problems storing objects this way. Just be carefull as to how big they may become.

[goldlikesnow]

You can serialize objects and store it in session, it is not buggy, but the performance gain is doubtfull as the proccess is slow in PHP.

All is stated in here:
http://ca.php.net/manual/en/language.oop.serialization.php

[Kudose]

Thanks for your replies.

Could someone tell me why I get a blank object with this?

class file

/** verify $_POST formats **/
  if(!eregi("^[-A-Z0-9_]$", $_POST['userName']) || !eregi("^[-A-Z0-9_]$", $_POST['userPassword']))
    $Auth->errors = array('Username and password may only contain A-Z, 0-9, [hyphen] and [underscore]');
  /** if no errors, continue **/
  if(count($Auth->errors == 0)){
    if($ID = ($Auth->authorize($_POST['userName'], $_POST['userPassword']))){
      $Player = new Player;
      $Player->id = $ID;
      $Player->MySQL($DBLOC, $DBUSR, $DBPWD, $DBNME);
      $Player->loadPlayer($Player->getUserID());
      $_SESSION['Player'] = $Player;
    }
  } //end if(count($Auth->errors == 0))

  /** return to referer **/
  header('Location: '.$FROM);

index file

<?php /** end login form **/ 
            } else { // end if(!$_SESSION['memID'] || $_SESSION['memID'] <= 0)
              $Player = $_SESSION['Player'];
            } //create Player object from SESSION
          ?>
        </td>
        <td id="content">Hello there <?php echo ($_SESSION['Player']) ? $Player->name : 'Guest'; ?>.</td>

This returns "Hello there ." when logged in and "Hello there Guest." when not.

TIA.

[Kudose]

Using print_r on the $_SESSION['Player'], I get:

__PHP_Incomplete_Class Object
(
    [__PHP_Incomplete_Class_Name] => player
    [name] => Player_1
    [lvl] => 1
    [exp] => 0
    [str] => 1
    [dex] => 1
    [luck] => 1
    [agil] => 1
    [age] => 18
    [wep] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1
            [wepID] => 1
            [1] => Fists
            [wepName] => Fists
            [2] => 0
            [wepCost] => 0
            [3] => 1
            [wepMinDMG] => 1
            [4] => 2
            [wepMaxDMG] => 2
            [5] => 1
            [reqLVL] => 1
        )

[arm] => Array
    (
        [0] => 1
        [armID] => 1
        [1] => None
        [armName] => None
        [2] => 0
        [armCost] => 0
        [3] => 0
        [armMaxDef] => 0
        [4] => 1
        [reqLVL] => 1
    )

[id] => 1
[money] => 0
[sex] => M
)

[thorpe]

Have you included the implimentation of the Player class in your index file? eg;

include("Player.class.php");

[Kudose]

Yep.

<?php 
  session_start();
  /** require Player class **/
  require_once('classes/class.Player.php');

?>

[thorpe]

Seems a little odd seeing as print_r shows it. I think you need to use...

$Player = new $_SESSION['Player'];

thought I cant see how that might help us.

[thorpe]

This works fine for me. All on one page I know, but I dont have a server handy.

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

session_start();

class a {
    function name() {
        return "thorpe\n";

    }       
}

$_SESSION['a'] = new a();


$b = $_SESSION['a'];
echo $b->name();

?>

produces the output thorpe as expected.

[Kudose]

Ok, this is something wierd I think. Maybe you can explain it?

With this code I get output on all three lines I want:

<?php
  require_once('classes/class.Player.php');

  $player = new Player;

  $player->setUserID(2); // set from $_SESSION

  $player->MySQL("xxx", "xxx", "xxx", "xxx");

  //if($player->createPlayer("Timmy")) echo 'neat!'; else echo 'xxxx';
  echo 'Player ID: '.$player->id;
  $Player = $player->loadPlayer($player->getUserID());


  echo '<br /><br /><br /><br />';

  $_SESSION['Player'] = $player;
  $p = $_SESSION['Player'];
  echo 'Name :: '.$p->name;


class a {
    function name() {
        return "thorpe\n";

    }       
}

$_SESSION['a'] = new a;
echo '<br /><br /><br /><br />';

$b = $_SESSION['a'];
echo 'thorpe :: '.$b->name();

?>

With this code, I don't get the value printed for "Name :: "

echo 'Player ID: '.$player->id;
  $Player = $player->loadPlayer($player->getUserID());

  echo '<br /><br /><br /><br />';

  $_SESSION['Player'] = $Player;
  $p = $_SESSION['Player'];
  echo 'Name :: '.$p->name;

The only difference in the code is:

$_SESSION['Player'] = $Player; 
/** AND **/
$_SESSION['Player'] = $player;

I am thinking it is because when I initialize $Player, it is the return value of $player->loadPlayer(...). Which isn't anything. When I switch it to $player, I get good data due to $player obtaining the data I am looking for when $Player = $player->loadPlayer(...) is called.

Does that make sense? Am I right or wrong?

[jdorsch]

This is wrong, you must include your class definitions before session_start() in order for classes to be unserialized correctly.

And FYI, serializing creates weird stuff with complex classes especially in PHP 5.

Kudose wrote:

Yep.

<?php 
  session_start();
  /** require Player class **/
  require_once('classes/class.Player.php');

?>

[Kudose]

Note to self: Don't serialize objects.