Confusing session behaviour

David Haynes

I am running Apache 2, PHP 5.0.5, and windows XP

I have one php file that populates a SESSION variable and another that
consumes it.

If I call the first one from the URL line of the browser, the form fills
correctly (i.e. the values are passed in the session)

If I call the first program from the second via an <a href> the session
is lost.

So, from the browser URL, the order would be:
[first.php]
session_start();
$_SESSION['foo'] = $foo;
session_write_close();
header("location: second.php");
exit;

[second.php]
session_start();
$foo = $_SESSION['foo'];
print_r($foo);

This works.

If I change second.php to be:
session_start();
$foo = $_SESSION['foo'];
<a href="first.php">first</a>

then the session is empty when the href is selected.

What am I missing?
-david-

Feb 25 '06 #1

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1152

Janwillem Borleffs

David Haynes wrote:

If I call the first program from the second via an <a href> the
session is lost.

So, from the browser URL, the order would be:
[first.php]
session_start();
$_SESSION['foo'] = $foo;

Where is $foo initially defined?
JW

Feb 25 '06 #2

David Haynes

Janwillem Borleffs wrote:

David Haynes wrote:
If I call the first program from the second via an <a href> the
session is lost.

So, from the browser URL, the order would be:
[first.php]
session_start();
$_SESSION['foo'] = $foo;

Where is $foo initially defined?
JW

$foo just represents some meaningful data.

I have a real minimal example now:

[file: foo.ctrl.php]

<?php
session_start();
$foo[] = array('this'=>1, 'that'=>2);
$_SESSION['foo'] = $foo;
session_write_close();
header('location: foo.php');
exit;
?>

[file: foo.php]

<?php
session_start();
printf("_SESSION<br>\n");
$foo = $_SESSION['foo'];
print_r($foo);
echo <<<EOF
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<br/>
<a href="foo.ctrl.php>foo</a>
</body>
EOF;
?>

Calling foo.ctrl.php from the browser URL produces:
_SESSION
Array ( [0] => Array ( [this] => 1 [that] => 2 ) )
foo

clicking on the 'foo' link produces:
_SESSION

foo

-david-

Feb 25 '06 #3

Janwillem Borleffs

David Haynes wrote:

Calling foo.ctrl.php from the browser URL produces:
_SESSION
Array ( [0] => Array ( [this] => 1 [that] => 2 ) )
foo

clicking on the 'foo' link produces:
_SESSION

Beside that the assignment $foo[] = ... causes foo to be populated with
another array, this works on my environment as expected.

Make sure that the session.cookie_path directive in your ini file is set to
"/"; also try to set the session.use_trans_sid directive in the same file to
"1", which should cause the session id to be appended to the link when there
are problems setting the cookie.
JW

Feb 26 '06 #4

David Haynes

Janwillem Borleffs wrote:

David Haynes wrote:
Calling foo.ctrl.php from the browser URL produces:
_SESSION
Array ( [0] => Array ( [this] => 1 [that] => 2 ) )
foo

clicking on the 'foo' link produces:
_SESSION

Beside that the assignment $foo[] = ... causes foo to be populated with
another array, this works on my environment as expected.

Make sure that the session.cookie_path directive in your ini file is set to
"/"; also try to set the session.use_trans_sid directive in the same file to
"1", which should cause the session id to be appended to the link when there
are problems setting the cookie.
JW

Thanks for the suggestions JW.

Unfortunately, they did not fix my problem. Maybe its a windows or php
5.0.5. thing?

I'll move the example to Linux and see what happens.

-david-

Feb 26 '06 #5

David Haynes

David Haynes wrote:

Janwillem Borleffs wrote:
David Haynes wrote:
Calling foo.ctrl.php from the browser URL produces:
_SESSION
Array ( [0] => Array ( [this] => 1 [that] => 2 ) )
foo

clicking on the 'foo' link produces:
_SESSION

Beside that the assignment $foo[] = ... causes foo to be populated
with another array, this works on my environment as expected.

Make sure that the session.cookie_path directive in your ini file is
set to "/"; also try to set the session.use_trans_sid directive in the
same file to "1", which should cause the session id to be appended to
the link when there are problems setting the cookie.
JW

Thanks for the suggestions JW.

Unfortunately, they did not fix my problem. Maybe its a windows or php
5.0.5. thing?

I'll move the example to Linux and see what happens.

-david-

It turns out to be firewall-related. When I disabled my (local)
firewall, the application worked as I expected.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks.

-david-

Feb 26 '06 #6

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