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Introduction

Introduction – An introduction to HTTP_Session2

Overview

This package provides access to session-state values as well as session-level settings and lifetime management methods.

Based on the standart PHP session handling mechanism HTTP_Session2 provides more advanced features such as database containers, idle and expire timeouts and more.

A few examples

Setting options and detecting a new session

<?php
HTTP_Session2::useCookies(false);
HTTP_Session2::start('MySessionID');
HTTP_Session2::set('variable', 'The string');
if (HTTP_Session2::isNew()) {
    echo 'new session was created with the current request';
    $visitors++; // Increase visitors count
}
// continue
?>

Setting timeouts

<?php
HTTP_Session2::start();
HTTP_Session2::setExpire(time() + 60 * 60); // expires in one hour
HTTP_Session2::setIdle(time() + 10 * 60);   // idles in ten minutes

// the session expired
if (HTTP_Session2::isExpired()) {
    echo 'Your session has expired!';
    HTTP_Session2::destroy();
}

// the session is idle
if (HTTP_Session2::isIdle()) {
    echo "You've been idle for too long!";
    HTTP_Session2::destroy();
}

HTTP_Session2::updateIdle();
?>

For a more comprehensive example of persistent sessions, please check the cookie section.

Using a database container

Using a database container – How to store session data in a database with HTTP_Session2

Overview

HTTP_Session lets you store the session data in a database making use of the DB and MDB2 packages.

Example

Using MDB2 to store session data in a database

<?php
/* create the following table in your database
CREATE TABLE sessiondata (
    id     varchar(32) NOT NULL,
    expiry int(10),
    data   text,
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
*/

require_once 'HTTP/Session2.php';

HTTP_Session2::useTransSID(false);
HTTP_Session2::useCookies(false);

// enter your DSN
HTTP_Session2::setContainer('MDB2',
    array('dsn' => 'mysql://root:password@localhost/database',
        'table' => 'sessiondata'));

/*
// using an existing MDB2 connection
HTTP_Session2::setContainer('MDB2',
    array('dsn'   => &$db, 'table' => 'sessiondata'));
*/

HTTP_Session2::start('s');
HTTP_Session2::setExpire(time() + 60); // set expire to 60 seconds
HTTP_Session2::setIdle(time() + 5);    // set idle to 5 seconds

if (HTTP_Session2::isExpired()) {
    HTTP_Session2::destroy();
}

if (HTTP_Session2::isIdle()) {
    HTTP_Session2::destroy();
}

HTTP_Session2::updateIdle();
?>

Making a session persistent

Making a session persistent – This example illustrates how to make a session persist over multiple browser sessions using a so called "session cookie".

Explanation

When you create a session it needs to be referenced using a sessionID. This sessionID is generally saved either into a cookie or passed along in the URI.

To remember the sessionID across browser sessions, the cookie method is favoured.

To extend the lifetime of this cookie (the standard is that it's only valid until the browser is closed) we use PHP's session_set_cookie_params().

Example

Use of session_set_cookie_params

<?php
require_once 'HTTP/Session2.php';

/**
 * set cookie params
 */
session_set_cookie_params(60*60*24, // expire in 24 hours
    '/',                            // path
    '.example.org',                 // domain
    false,                          // "secure only"
    true);                          // only over http

HTTP_Session2::useCookies(true);

HTTP_Session2::start('s');
HTTP_Session2::setExpire(60*60*24); // set expire in 24 hours
HTTP_Session2::setIdle(60*60);      // set idle to 1 hour

if (HTTP_Session2::isExpired()) {
    HTTP_Session2::destroy();
}

if (HTTP_Session2::isIdle()) {
    HTTP_Session2::destroy();
}

HTTP_Session2::updateIdle();
?>