Defining session variables

php sessions

[don_dr]

I am having problems with session variables on multiple pages. when i define a new set of session variables on the 2nd page, they old set of variables seem to vanish completely. here is what i mean

page 1
========
//i define variables based on values posted from a form on the same page using PHP_SELF, run a couple of checks and redirect to page 2 using header()
<?php
session_start();
$name = htmlspecialchars($_POST['name']);
$lname = htmlspecialchars($_POST['lname']);

$_SESSION['name'] = $name;
$_SESSION['lname'] = $lname;

....
?>

page 2
========

echo $_SESSION ['name'] works just fine....
//then i define new variables on page 2 using the same method and redirect to page 3

<?php
session_start();
//new variables
$co = htmlspecialchars($_POST['co']);
$_SESSION['co'] = $co;
....
?>

page 3
========

echo $_SESSION['co'] shows the value of $co, but $_SESSION['name'] seems to have completely vanished.

Anyone know why this is happening? I can be a little more specific if neccessary.

Thanks.

[nick279]

Just double check that your sessions aren't expiring between pages.

$expireTime = 60*60*24*100; // 100 days
session_set_cookie_params($expireTime);
session_start();

[omoutop]

sessions do not expire so soon...i think the default timeout is around 25 mins (not sure on this thought).

echo "<pre>";
print_r($_SESSION);
echo "</pre>";

use the above to every page you initialize sessions to check what is being passed/defined/set/unset

Try the code in both header and footer of your pages.

Is it pssible that between page 2 and page 3 you do some other redirection, through a page that do not have session_start()?

On page 3 you said that $_SESSION['name'] do not work. What about $_SESSION['lname']? Does it has any value?

[ag_47]

Also make sure the cookies are being set on the browser.
open page 1, check cookies, check session files on server.
Go to page 2, see what changed? Was a new session file created on the server? If yes, then problem is in cookies.

[djbuddhi]

or else u can used session_register();

[don_dr]

i think the probelm had to do with something concerning sessions expiring because i added the following bit of code to pages 1 and 2 and everything seems to be ok now

$expireTime = 60*60*24*1; // 1 day
$sessdir = "/path/";
//session_save_path($sessdir);
//session_set_cookie_params($expireTime);
session_start();