session variables disappearing!!!

BenS

Hi, I've just started making my first php site, and I'm stuck already.
I have a few pages with a common section at the beginning which checks for a status session variable so I can tell if a user is logged in if so, what their privelege level is. I do it like this:

<?php
  session_start();
  //some code
  if (!isset($_SESSION['user_status']))
  {
    //some code
    $_SESSION['user_status'] = 'guest';
    //some more code
  }
  //more code, to check username against mysql database etc.
?>

The user_status variable is also changed at other places in the code.

I'm finding that whenever I navigate around these pages (even when another one has already been run), the code in the if statement is still being run.

I've checked that the session id is the same each time by saving it as a variable and echoing it later on.

If I put in another isset($_SESSION['user_status']) check later on in the same page, it is found. Therefore it looks like the session variable is being erased when I change to a different page. Anybody got any idea why? I thought that the idea of session variables is that they stay there while you're in the same browser window and session id.

Please help!!!

Rodney_H_

That is what Session variable are for: To be usable on multiple pages.

I would do the following:

1) Make sure you are making a call to the session_start(); function on each page

2) Check to see if the $_SESSION['user_status'] var has been set on every page. If it is NOT set, echo out something like:

echo '$_SESSION["user_status"] is NOT set';

If it IS set, echo that out instead:

echo $_SESSION['user_status'] . ' IS set.';

By echoing out the values, you will see for sure that it is/not set on certain pages and be able to do some further troubleshooting.

My hunch is that you are not making a call to session_start() OR that you are simply re-assigning a new value to it somewhere by mistake.

Take your time and go through the pages. It is definitely helpful to check the status of your users by employing a function. That way, the method you choose to employ on the site will be consistent:

<?php
// function to check if user is logged in:
function check_user_status {

   session_start();

   if (!isset($_SESSION['user_status'])) 
   { 
        echo '$_SESSION["user_status"] Not set!<br />'; 
        $_SESSION['user_status'] = 'guest';
   }
   else 
   { 
        echo $_SESSION['user_status'] . '<br />'; 
   }
}
?>

Then you can include the function in each page as needed. Once you have this debugged, you can modify it to suit your needs...

BenS

Hi RodneyH, thanks for the response. They were actually the first things I tried too.
As the layout is the same on each page, I'm using the include(); function to put the page startup scripts, table layout etc onto the top of the page to make sure that it's all the same throughout the pages. Consequently a standard page looks like this:

<?php
  session_start();
  include('commontop.php');
  include('uniquepagecontent.php');
  include('commonbottom.php')
?>

and that's all that goes on the page.

commontop.php then has

<?php
  session_start();
  //some code, including logging into database
  if (!isset($_SESSION['user_status']))
  {
    $_SESSION['user_status'] = 'guest';
  }
  //some more code, including echoing html table structure etc
?>

session_start() is definitely being called each time. To double check, I even tried putting a call to the function at the top of every single php block in my entire site.

On all of my pages, if I do the echo check before I do

  if (!isset($_SESSION['user_status']))
{
  $_SESSION['user_status'] = 'guest';
}

then user_status doesn't exist. If I try it after that code, then it always does exist.

The problem isn't that it's being accidentally set as something else, as the isset function returns false.

Hope that makes sense...

Rodney_H_

SHow the code one the page where the user logs in, and where $_SESSION['user_status'] is being set to something OTHER than "guest".

BenS

  $usbc_result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM userlist
  WHERE username='usbc_user'") or die(mysql_error());
  $usbc_row = mysql_fetch_array($usbc_result);

  if($usbc_row['password'] == $_SESSION['usbc_password'])
  {
    $_SESSION['user_status'] = $usbc_row['type'];
  }
  else
  {
    $_SESSION['user_status'] = 'guest';
  }

The 'type' field is an enum, with options 'active', 'ex' or 'associate' (the site is for a rowing club, and only active members will be able to see training schedules etc so I searated them like that).

[edit] I also recognise now that the above code won't work anyway as I put 'usbc_user' in directly rather than its session variable of the same name. But hey, it's a first attempt.[/edit]

BenS

Problem solved!!!

Just realised I didn't catch for when I search the database and the username doesn't exist at all. In this case, it was setting null to user_status, so wasn't recognised the next time around.

Thanks for the help.

Ben