Sessions with NS4

[Anon]

I have built a login scheme that registers the username and password with sessions. However, Netscape 4 seems to lose these variables unless they're reposted. I was under the impression sessions maintained the variables as long as session_start() was present. So why is NS4 losing them? Does anyone know of a quirk with NS4 and sessions?

Here's my relevant code:

<?php
// course.php
session_start();
$title = "Freedom Course";
$rightPanel = "../includes/rightCourse.inc";

// I left out the grab_queries and auth_user for space

function login_form() {
session_start();
global $PHP_SELF;
global $title, $rightPanel, $firstname;
include "../includes/header.inc";
include "../course/login.inc";
include "../includes/footer.inc";
}

function extract_article($article) {
$numDay = substr($article,-2);
return $numDay;
}

if(!isset($login_user)) {
login_form();
exit;
}
else {
session_register("login_user");
session_register("login_pass");
$authorized = auth_user($login_user, $login_pass);
if(!$authorized) {
session_unregister("login_user");
session_unregister("login_pass");
include "../includes/header.inc";
include "../course/invalidLogin.inc";
include "../includes/footer.inc";
exit;
}
else {
$email = grab_email($login_user);
session_register("email");

	$firstname = grab_firstname($login_user);
	session_register("firstname");

	$recipient = grab_mentor($login_user);
	session_register("recipient");

	setcookie ("firstname", $firstname, time() +180 * 86400, "/", ".thenine.com");

	if (!$article) {
		$article = "welcome.inc";
		include "../includes/header.inc";
		include "$article";
		include "../includes/footer.inc";
	}

	else {
		$numDay = extract_article($article);
		include "../includes/header.inc";
		echo ("\n<form method=post action='preProcess.php'>\n");
		echo ("<input type=hidden name='Name' value='$firstname'>\n");
		echo ("<input type=hidden name='User' value='$login_user'>\n");
		echo ("<input type=hidden name='email' value='$email'>\n");
		echo ("<input type=hidden name='Course' value='Freedom'>\n");
		echo ("<input type=hidden name='Day' value='$numDay'>\n");
		echo ("<h1>The Freedom Course</h1>\n");
		include "$article";
		echo ("\n<input type=hidden name='recipient' value='$recipient'>\n");
		echo ("<input type=hidden name='subject' value='Freedom_Course:_Response'>\n");
		include "WereYouFree.inc";
		echo ("<center><input type=submit value=Submit>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<input type=reset value=Reset></center>\n</form>\n");
		include "../includes/footer.inc";
	}
}

}
?>

and the code for rightCourse.inc:

<form method=get action="../course/course.php">
<select name=article class=formText>
<option value="" selected>Choose Day

<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "php", "php");

mysql_select_db("scf",$db);

$result=mysql_query("SELECT filepath FROM course_freedom ORDER BY course_no",$db);

$numrows = mysql_num_rows($result);

$count = 1;

for ($i = 0; $i < mysql_num_rows($result); $i++) { ?>
<option value="<? echo mysql_result($result,$i,"filepath"); ?>"><? echo ("Day " . $count++ . "\n");} ?>
</select>
<br><br>
<input type=submit value=" go " class=formText>
</form>

--

So course.php rebuilds itself based on the value of $article (acquired through the form in rightCourse.inc) but NS4 loses the $login_pass and $login_user variables. Can anyone help me?

[[deleted]]

You must carry the session ID along to every page.
This done wither through cookies or the URL.
If you are not using cookies, then each and every URL and FORM must contain the ID.

Read the manual about it:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.session.php

[Anon]

Let's simplify this. Why does the following work in IE and NS6 but not NS4?

<?
session_start();
session_register("SESSION");

if (! isset($SESSION)) {
$SESSION["count"] = 0;
echo "<li>Counter initialized, reload this page to see it increment";
} else {
echo "<li>Waking up session $PHPSESSID";
$SESSION["count"]++;
}
echo "<li>The counter is now $SESSION[count]";
?>

You can view an example at the following: http://www.thetredways.com/session_test.php