subject: phplib contra php4-sessions

[Anon]

dear comunity!

during several month I programmed with php-lib and learned how it works. since some
weeks I've been trying to program some php-lib-like classes with
php4-session-handling for a project by myself. regarding this I have read in a newsgroup
that it is not possible to use objects with php4-sessions. so I registered
only some attributes in my sessions – but it was not very convenient. later
someone told me that it IS possible to use objects in sessions, but you have
to include the code with the class-definition first ( before
session_start()). Okay, but I have got many classes and there should not be
output before session_start(). Am I right?

My Question: If I know phplib, is it necessary or better to use
php4-sessions? what are the advantages and disadvantages of using phplib or php4-sessionhandling? Furthermore I have heard that you can avoid this problem with the output
beforer session_start() by putting the session_start()-statement into a
class. But in which class and where? Into the constructor?

Thanx for your help
w4mobil.net-projectteam

[[deleted]]

1. PHPLib's session control is obsolete. PHP4 can do everything.
   More importantly, if you use PHPLib, you will become dependant on it, and everybody who wants to run your scripts must install PHPLib before they can use them.

2. you don't need to use output buffering, becuase if you did your job right, just defining the classes will NOT output anything at all.

[Anon]

1. Why is phplib's session control obsolete? The only difference I see is, that phplib saves the serialized sessiondata in a database and php4 in a temp-directory on the server. Furthermore with phplib you have got a lot of other useful classes (e.g. user-permissions).

2. You are right. A correct class should not have any output. But I programmed my classes like phplib with a debug-variable, which - if set true - shows a lot of useful information about the attributes of the class. What could be an alternative way to debug?

[[deleted]]

1. because it was created for php3 which had not sessions. Then PHP4 came along with great session support, thus making the PHPLib sessions obsolete.
   I didn't say PHPLib was obsolete, only the session control.

2. Create a debug method in the class. All the other methods could report their errors to a property, and the debug method would print them on demand.

[Anon]

1. I agree.
2. Great idea! Thank you!

By the way:
Do you think PHP is real OOP? Because there isn't any encapsulation....

[[deleted]]

PHP is not real OOP, but real OOP is not really required for the relatively simple web scripts that PHP was designed for.