Session Not Passing to Other Page

[sandthipe]

I've set a session variable for printing form field errors ($_SESSION['error']). If the session variable is set, the script will return the user to the form with an appropriate error message.

The session variable is not being passed to the form page, but I am able to print out the variable on the script page by a simple echo, then exit() command which stops the script from redirecting.

What is keeping my variable from being passed to the form page? Both the script and form page have sessions initiated [ session_start() ].

Thanks in advance,
-Chris

[nhassan]

well, you say that you have session_start() at the top of the form page right?

check to see if var_dump($_SESSION) shows anything.

and for checking it, how are you doing that, by using !$SESSION['error']
try

if( !isset($_SESSION['error']) ) {
header("Location: continue.php");
} else {
echo $_SESSION['error'];
}

[sandthipe]

thanks, nhassan. when i call for the session variable, this is what i use:

if(isset($_SESSION['error'])){
	$error = "<ul>".$_SESSION['error']."</ul>";
	unset($_SESSION['error']);
}

Then, I print out the variable $error in the html.

$_SESSION['error'] can have as many as 15 <li> items. The session variable is concatenated in the script according to the number of different errors.

[sandthipe]

well, i guess you can't put html tags in a session variable? i did not know this. I'm using a DB to store the sessions, would that make a difference?

thanks,

-Chris

[nhassan]

you can store any type of string on a session variable. that seems fine.

I just tried it out, heres the two files.

test.php:
<?php

// begin the session
session_start();

// dummy post values
$_POST['name'] = '';

// check if the $_POST['name'] is compelted
if( $_POST['name'] == '' ) {
	$_SESSION['error'] = 'Please fill in your name';
	echo '<a href="test2.php">Continue</a>';
} else {
	echo 'Welcome ' . $_POST['name'];
}

?>

test2.php:

<?php

// session start
session_start();

// now the message thing
if( isset($_SESSION['error']) ) {
	$error = '<b>' . $_SESSION['error'] . '</b>';
	unset($_SESSION['error']);
}

echo $error;

?>

test.php sets the session variable. [ theres a fake $_POST[] that i put in ]

and test2.php echos the session.

[Amarsir]

If you don't mind me hopping on board, I'm having the same problem.

I just tried that pair of files that nhassan suggested, and it seems to confirm that nothing is passing. (As do my various attempts at var_dump($_SESSION) all returning "array(0) { }")

So what could be getting in the way? I'm running PHP 5 though IIS on localhost.

[Amarsir]

Also, my guess given so far is that it must be something wrong in php.ini, though I have no idea what. Here's the relevant section provided by phpinfo(), if it sheds any light.

                  session
Session Support 	        enabled 
Registered save handlers 	files user 
Registered serializer handlers 	php php_binary wddx 

Directive	                Local Value	Master Value
session.auto_start	        Off	        Off
session.bug_compat_42	        Off	        Off
session.bug_compat_warn	        On	        On
session.cache_expire	        180	        180
session.cache_limiter	        nocache	        nocache
session.cookie_domain	        no value	no value
session.cookie_httponly	        Off	        Off
session.cookie_lifetime	        0	        0
session.cookie_path	        /	        /
session.cookie_secure	        Off	        Off
session.entropy_file	        no value	no value
session.entropy_length	        0	        0
session.gc_divisor	        1000	        1000
session.gc_maxlifetime	        1440	        1440
session.gc_probability	        1	        1
session.hash_bits_per_character	5	        5
session.hash_function	        0	        0
session.name	                PHPSESSID	PHPSESSID
session.referer_check	        no value	no value
session.save_handler	        files	        files
session.save_path	        C:\php\session	C:\php\session
session.serialize_handler	php	        php
session.use_cookies	        On	        On
session.use_only_cookies	Off	        Off
session.use_trans_sid	        0	        0

[Amarsir]

Just to post an answer in case someone else stumbles across this:

The way I ended up fixing it was changing the session.save_path to a folder in the Inetpub tree, which I then made sure had write permission enabled. A bounce and it finally worked.