sessions set inside a function do not work

[Johny7126]

I have a page where you can update 2 uploaded images and there details in a database.

This page runs a script which uses a separate file called functions.php where the most of the work is done.

Quite a complex task and its still being built therefore I want to be able to debug it by adding to an errors session in the functions file - problem is when I do this, obviously it redirects to the original form but session details cannot be displayed i.e. it shows nothing.

Setting sessions inside a function - is there something I need to add to be able to do this or should I be using a GET methods to get these errors back.

Any questions or code examples needed then please say.

Thanks

[NogDog]

Not sure if this is the issue, but if you're doing a header() redirect, be sure to do a [man]session_write_close/man before it or the session data might not be saved.

[bradgrafelman]

You can use [man]session_start/man anywhere inside your PHP scripts so long as you use it before any data is outputted to the browser.

If you're having problems, make sure you have display_errors set to On and error_reporting set to E_ALL and see if any PHP errors are occurring. If not, show us the simplest code that produces the problem.

[Johny7126]

Cheers for replies.

I tried to set the session in the script that is ran by the form and it works - does that shed any light on the problem.

Sessions need to be set in the functions page though.

Heres the script page:

<?php
session_start();

// is the one accessing this page logged in or not?
if (!isset($_SESSION['db_is_logged_in']) || $_SESSION['db_is_logged_in'] !== true) 
{
	// not logged in, move to login page
	header('Location: login.php');
	exit;
}

//====================================================

include("functions.php");

$product_id = $_GET['id'];

if(($_FILES['upload_large']['name'] != "") or ($_FILES['upload_small']['name'] != ""))
{
	$upload_original_large = new_name($_FILES['upload_large']['name']); // e.g. snow_atiba.jpg or atiba.jpg	
	$upload_original_small = new_name($_FILES['upload_small']['name']);

update_upload($upload_original_large);
update_upload($upload_original_small);
}

update_db($upload_original_large);

header("Location: edit_product.php?id=$product_id");
exit();
?>

And here is part of the the functions page:

<?php
session_start();

function new_name($name_from_form)
{
	// See if any of the images have a category already
	//===========================================
	$categories_array = array("/street/", "/travel/", "/skate/", "/camera/", "/moto/", "/surf/", "/snow/");
	for($i=0; $i <=6; $i++)
	{
		if(preg_match($categories_array[$i], $name_from_form))
		{
			$category_search = "true";
		}
	}

if($category_search == "true")// If the image filename has a category name then do a replace even if its the same i.e. new upload different category selected
{		
	$new_category = $_POST['category_radio'];
	$upload = explode("_", $name_from_form);
	$upload_without_category = $upload[1];
	$new_upload_name = $new_category."_".$upload_without_category;

	echo $new_upload_name."<br />";		
	$_SESSION['errors'] = "File already has a category<br />";
}
else // If image filename does not have a category then just add the category
{
	$category = $_POST['category_radio'];
	$new_upload_name = $category."_".$name_from_form;

	$_SESSION['errors'] = "New upload name:  ".$new_upload_name."<br />";
	$_SESSION['errors'] = "File does not have a category<br />";
}

session_write_close(); 

return $new_upload_name;
}

I forget how do I concatenate the errors, is it += or.= e.g.
$_SESSION['errors'] += "File does not have a category<br />";
EDIT: .= duh!

Thanks

[tapos]

since you have called the function.php after session_start(), then u dont need to use session_start(); in function.php. u can use arrays to save the errors, and i think that a good idea than concatenation.
use $SESSION['errors'][] = "YOUR MESSAGE"; instead of $SESSION['errors'] = "YOUR MESSAGE";

[Johny7126]

Right, I managed to get those errors/debug information to come through and the whole thing is almost working - only problem is, its not updating the database now and it was before:

function update_db($new_filename)
{
	// Get the PHP file containing the DbConnector class
	require_once('../db/DbConnector.php');

// Create an instance of DbConnector
$connector = new DbConnector();

//===============================================

....

$product_id = $_GET['id'];	

$_SESSION['errors'] .= "ID:  ".$product_id."<br />";

if($new_filename != "")
{
	// Update the database
	if($featured != "YES")
	{
		if($connector->query("UPDATE store SET filename = '$new_filename', description = '$desc', item_name='$name', price = '$price', technology = '$tech', reference = '$ref', other_information = '$other' WHERE id='$product_id'"))
		{
			$_SESSION['errors'] .= "YES!";	
		}

		$_SESSION['errors'] .= "Query is:  "."UPDATE store SET filename = '$new_filename', item_name='$name', price = '$price', technology = '$tech', reference = '$ref', other_information = '$other' WHERE id='$product_id'"."<br />";
....
}

It shows the query as being perfect i.e. right id and all other information is fine.

I dont get any YES though therefore its not working.

In the first function I used the same code to do a select query and used require_once for the dbconnector script in both functions - maybe just includes? at the top of the page.

Any more question/code needed then say.

Cheers anyone

[tapos]

Johny7126 wrote:

if($connector->query("UPDATE store SET filename = '$new_filename', description = '$desc', item_name='$name', price = '$price', technology = '$tech', reference = '$ref', other_information = '$other' WHERE id='$product_id'"))
{
$_SESSION['errors'] .= "YES!";
}

		$_SESSION['errors'] .= "Query is:  "."UPDATE store SET filename = '$new_filename', item_name='$name', price = '$price', technology = '$tech', reference = '$ref', other_information = '$other' WHERE id='$product_id'"."<br />";[/QUOTE]

You can't expect only the value "YES" of the variable $SESSION['errors']. Since you have concatenated also the query it self with the variable $SESSION['errors']. remove it or handle it more logical way.
thanks