session me aarghh

[vodica]

ahh well, here we go,
I have a problem understanding sessions, I don't know how to it? I read the tutorial by Kevin Y. explaining how to do a User Managment system but not quite fully sure I know it. So can someone please write an example on how to use sessions (two pages)

Thank you guys!

[kunal]

Sessions is simple. The Basic rules are :

on every page that you want to use sessions on, the first line should have :
session_start();

now, suppose you want to store 2 variables in the session, var1 and var2. You simply have to do :
session_register(var1);
session_register(var2);


to use these variables in your program, simply refer to them as :
echo $var1;
echo $var2;

if you want to delete the variables, do this :
session_unregister(var1);
session_unregister(var2);


if you want to destroy the session itself, do this :
session_destroy();


thats about all there is
Kunal

[lynlimz]

Hmm..Just to clarify..so if you want to assign different variable name for your sessions variables..you do this?

$session["var1"] = $value1;
$session["var2"] = $value2;

else it'll be $var1 and $var2 right?

[vodica]

ahhh, thank you!
It works, I know it (hehehe)!

P.S> does anyone know how to set a cookie and read it ??
thank you!

[lynlimz]

To set a cookie,

if ($HTTP_HOST != $SERVER_NAME) { // If no 'WWW', Cookie won't work in Netscape
    header ("Location: http://www.$HTTP_HOST$SCRIPT_NAME?$QUERY_STRING");
    exit;
}
setcookie ("cookiename", cookievariable, time()+31536000, "/", ".$HTTP_HOST", 0); // Sets a Cookie which will Expire in a Year's time 

to read a cookie, just read it by accessing the cookiename variable.

like..

// To check if cookie exists

if ($cookiename) { echo 'Cookie Exists'; }
else { echo 'Cookie does not Exist'; } 

[vodica]

I don't get it? The first part of the code? Why all of that relocating and doing that and that ....

can you do it a function sort of way? You know like
a function that calls let say SetC("myname", "value of cookie?"); or something like that?

??

[lynlimz]

Well yes.you can create a function..

function setCookie($cookiename, $cookievar, $time)
{

    if ($HTTP_HOST != $SERVER_NAME) { // If no 'WWW', Cookie won't work in Netscape
        header ("Location: http://www.$HTTP_HOST$SCRIPT_NAME?$QUERY_STRING");
        exit;
    }
    setcookie ("$cookiename", $cookievar, $time, "/", ".$HTTP_HOST", 0);

} 

the purpose of redirecting to ensure a www in the host name..coz cookies won't work in netscape without the 'www'. its for compatibility reasons.

[vodica]

Thanks, but still:

Okay, we got the function, what about the check if cookie exist? How do you do something if(function($cookiename)) { do smothenig etc.??
Can you have a function that is also a variable?

You know that if you have a function checkcookie that it can be true or false and you can check it by running it?

[lynlimz]

It checks if cookie is set. else create the cookie.
if cookie exists, return false.
if cookie doesn't exist, return true.

function chkCookie($cookiename, $cookievar, $time)
{

    if (!$$cookiename) {
        if ($HTTP_HOST != $SERVER_NAME) { // If no 'WWW', Cookie won't work in Netscape
            header ("Location: http://www.$HTTP_HOST$SCRIPT_NAME?$QUERY_STRING");
            exit;
    }
    setcookie ("$cookiename", $cookievar, $time, "/", ".$HTTP_HOST", 0);
    return false;
    }
    else {
        // Do stuffs when cookie exists. or like now, return true
    return true;
    }

}