session problems

omelette

I am having some problems with the data from my session not being deleted properly.

I have a shopping cart on my site and when the cart is emptied, the session variables are unset. I then find that when I carry on using the site, items keep getting put back in to the cart!

It seems that the session is being emptied but the data is still stored somewhere else and then is randomly put back in to the session again without being told to!

Can anyone help with this at all please?

bad76

Hi,
mmm it's hard to sey... can you post some strip of the code that you use for unsetting?
may be we can help more...

ps: delete the other post 😉

omelette

//completely clear shopping cart

if (isset($GET["clear_cart"])) {
unset($SESSION["gids"]);
unset($_SESSION["counts"]);
}

//remove from cart product with productID == $remove

if (isset($GET["remove"]) && $GET["remove"] > 0) {
$i=0;
while ($i<count($SESSION["gids"]) && $SESSION["gids"][$i] != $GET ["remove"]) $i++;
if ($i<count($SESSION["gids"]))
$_SESSION["gids"][$i] = 0;
}

The thing is, I originally had the website on another server and it all worked fine so i'm guessing it's something to do with the php settings.

P.S. I'm not sure how to delete the other post as somone has replied!! Didn't even noticed i'd posted twice!

harmor

try

session_destroy();

bad76

mmm
but this will erase all variable session...

your code sounds good... but you are experiencing the error when remove a single object or when you empty the cart?

harmor

What if he assigns an empty value to the session?
I'm just thinking of solutions.

if (isset($GET["clear_cart"])) {
$SESSION["gids"] = NULL;
$_SESSION["counts"] = NULL;
}

omelette

yeah, i didn't really want to do session_destroy if possible as i use the session to store other variables.

i will try setting them to null although i would have thought that would have the same effect as unsetting them

i am getting the error both when i remove a single item and when i empty the cart.
also, sometimes when i add an item to a cart, it later disappears!! there doesn't seem to be any logic to it.

bad76

mmm this sounds like a cache problem...

however you can try to do something like this:

$i=count($_SESSION["gids"]);
while($i>=0) unset($_SESSION["gids"][$i--]);

..but it's just a try... good luck.

omelette

I have looked at the php settings on the two different servers I have tried the code on. There are a few differences in the session settings:

session.cookie_lifetime - 0 and 3600
session.cookie_path - / and no value
session.entropy_file - no value and /dev/urandom
session.entropy_length - 0 and 16
session.gc_maxlifetime - 1440 and 1200
session.gc_probability - 1 and 0

(first value is on the one that works, 2nd on the one that doesn't)

I thought the cookie lifetime might be something to do with it but doesn't quite explain the problem. I also thought it might be entropy file but I don't really understand what this is!

jdorsch

Are you making sure session_start() gets called before you unset the session? It could be that the old server had session autostart set to on.

omelette

i have session_start() at the beginning of each page so i don't think it's that.

bad76

mmm may be this:

omelette wrote:
session.cookie_lifetime - 0 and 3600

From manual:

www.php.net/session wrote:
session.cookie_lifetime specifies the lifetime of the cookie in seconds which is sent to the browser. The value 0 means "until the browser is closed." Defaults to 0.

But I don't look a big difference beetwen the server...

What about register_gobals? are both on or both off?

omelette

The one that works has register_globals set to on and the one that doesn't has them set to off.

Do you think that could be it? Am I able to change this setting without access to php.ini?

I tried setting the cookie lifetime to 0 and it ended the session when I closed the browser but also whenever I refreshed the page so that was no good!

bad76

Uhm... nope, you can't.

I'm sorry, but really I cannot figure out what's the problem...
register_globals may be any answer, but I don't understand why...

mmm the only way is to simulate both server on your own personal computer and try to set register_globals on/off then lifetime 0-3600

Ah, try also with another browser, even with a different explorer (from another pc...). Be sure to clear the cache.

I hope you can find something...

HeyRay2

Try multiple browsers, report back if they all suffer from this issue from your new webserver.

omelette

i've tried it on a couple of other browsers and still having the same problem.

i've been trying to set up php and mysql on my pc so i can try the different settings but been having lots of problems so not been able to try that yet!

omelette

I have now tried it on my computer, changed all the settings in php.ini to the same as what they are on my website that doesn't work and I am not getting this error!

The only things I couldn't change are locations such as session.save_path so maybe there's something wrong with that, I don't know.

I'm now at a bit of a loss for what to try next.

jdorsch

The difference could be in httpd.conf as well. You will need to look into the apache config on the server and also on your PC. You can set php config stuff from both the apache conf file and also in .htaccess files.

omelette

Do you know how I find out the config settings for the server? Is there something i can use like phpinfo() ?

Any idea what settings I would be looking at? I don't know too much about servers.

HeyRay2

You'll most likely need to get in touch with your web host for information on server settings.