graphical session timer countdown

[vinny199]

Hello,

I have searched through google and this forum on how to do a graphical session timer countdown, I have not found a suitable answer.

Can you help pls?

What I'd like to do is:

i have my

session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440

which I understand will be my maximum session time as soon as The

session_start()

kicks in

What I would like to do is be able to display a counter, counting down the session to 0 and whe it reaches 0 to say "your session has expired"

I would like this counter to be visible on all the pages of the website while the user browse the site.

Any idea what I need to do?

Many thanks,

Vinny

[NogDog]

Max session time is really a factor of the gc_maxlifetime and also the session cookie lifetime. (Also, the gc_maxlifetime can randomly be longer than its specified value, based on the gc_probability setting.) Anyway, whichever has the lesser value will be the determining factor.

So, since the only way to know which session is being tracked is to do a session_start() on each page, the session time limit is going to reinitialize on each page access. So you could just find any JavaScript (or other client-side) script you like that displays a timer, and set its starting value based on the current PHP maxlifetime or cookie lifetime value you choose to use.

[vinny199]

thanks, I'll try, but this way wouldnt the timer reset itself everytime the user goes back and forth pages?

[NogDog]

vinny199 wrote:

thanks, I'll try, but this way wouldnt the timer reset itself everytime the user goes back and forth pages?

Yes, but that's the way a session timeout functions: it refreshes on each new session_start() (a new session cookie is sent and the session data gets a new last access time - which is what the gc process looks at), and without a session_start() you can't (conveniently) know which session time you are tracking.

[richa]

Depending upon what you are trying to do, this may be helpful,
http://freeajaxscripts.net/directory/Ajax_Forms/Prevent_PHP_session_timeout_during_form_entry/details.html

it is some Ajax to check if your session is still valid and prevent the user entering
data if not.

FYI, Rich