[RESOLVED] session confusion

clairence

I have a login validation script that checks a username and password against stored values. If they are a match, the following code occurs:

if ($sbmtpw==$correct){
		 $_SESSION['player']=$player;
 		 header("Location: http:mywebsite.com/weekselect.php");
		 //print_r($_SESSION);
		 exit;
		 }

when uncommented, that print_r($SESSION) reveals a correct $SESSION['id'] value and a correct $_SESSION['player'] value.

the new page opens with a session_start(), and some html. I put a print_r($SESSION) at the very beginning of the page, directly after</head>.

It reveals the $SESSION['id'] has taken on the value of $SESSION['player'] and $SESSION['player'] is now empty.

The page loads, and I also have a print_r($SESSION) at the bottom of the page, directly above </body>. It reveals that both $SESSION['id'] and $_SESSION['player'] are now empty.

What is happening there and what do I need to do to get around it?

nrg_alpha

But in that commented line, what session are you trying to print out?
You only have '$SESSION'. I think you mean $SESSION['player']?

HalfaBee

Use session_write_close() before the header()

clairence

I tried session_write_close() like this:

if ($sbmtpw==$correct){
		 $_SESSION['player']=$player;
		 session_write_close();
 		 header("Location: http://www.football.clairence.com/weekselect.php");
		 //print_r($_SESSION);
		 exit;
		 }

Everything still happens as before.

HalfaBee

I would check the weekselect.php for some kind of programming problem.

sessions should just work.

clairence

Okay, well I spent hours and hours trying to figure this out.

The behavior was inconsistent across browsers, which also threw me.

What seems to have worked, at least for the time being, is I replaced:

$_SESSION['player']=$player;
         session_write_close();
         header("Location: http://www.football.clairence.com/weekselect.php");

with

$_SESSION['player']=$player;
         session_write_close();
         session_start();
         header("Location: http://www.football.clairence.com/weekselect.php");

Also, in /weekselect.php, I was setting the variable $id to a value from the database, which seems to have been why $SESSION['id'] was changing between the top and bottom of the page.

Changing $id to $plid seems to have solved the loss of $SESSION['id'] through the page.

Pretty simple stuff, in the end. (It just took me three days to figure it out!)

Thanks for the replies.