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A PHP session solves this problem by allowing you to store user information on the server for later use (i.e. username, shopping cart items, etc). However, this session information is temporary and is usually deleted very quickly after the user has left the website that uses sessions.
It is important to ponder if the sessions' temporary storage is applicable to your website. If you require a more permanent storage you will need to find another solution, like a MySQL database.
Sessions work by creating a unique identification(UID) number for each visitor and storing variables based on this ID. This helps to prevent two users' data from getting confused with one another when visiting the same webpage.
Starting a PHP Session
Before you can store user information in your PHP session, you must first start up the session.
Note: The session_start() function must appear BEFORE the <html> tag:
<?php session_start(); ?> <html> <body> </body> </html>
The code above will register the user's session with the server, allow you to start saving user information, and assign a UID for that user's session.
Storing a Session Variable
The correct way to store and retrieve session variables is to use the PHP $_SESSION variable:
<?php session_start(); // store session data $_SESSION['views']=1; ?>
<html> <body>
<?php //retrieve session data echo "Pageviews=". $_SESSION['views']; ?>
</body> </html>
Output:
Pageviews=1
In the example below, we create a simple page-views counter. The isset() function checks if the "views" variable has already been set. If "views" has been set, we can increment our counter. If "views" doesn't exist, we create a "views" variable, and set it to 1:
<?php
session_start(); if(isset($_SESSION['views']))
$_SESSION['views']=$_SESSION['views']+1;
else
$_SESSION['views']=1;
echo "Views=". $_SESSION['views'];
?>
Destroying a Session
If you wish to delete some session data, you can use the unset() or the session_destroy() function.
The unset() function is used to free the specified session variable:
<?php
unset($_SESSION['views']); ?>
You can also completely destroy the session by calling the session_destroy() function:
<?php
session_destroy(); ?>
Note: session_destroy() will reset your session and you will lose all your stored session data.
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