PHP-General - $_SESSION variable value not getting displayed

Hi!

I am a relative newbie to PHP. I learnt PHP on my own by studying PHP programs and reading as much as I could on the net.

I would like some help on one of the basic issues.
I have written a PHP script that welcomes the user after successful login. The name of the user is displayed too after login. I have used $_SESSION variables for storing username, a code (that needs to be displayed) and have displayed it on the welcome page (part of the script below). The username gets displayed properly in the following script even the code is stored in the $_SESSION variable too but funnily isn't displaying!! If the code wasn't stored, then the reports that run using the code would have failed but the reports run too!! So I know that the code is stored properly in $_SESSION variable but when I want to display it on the welcome page it just doesn't display!! By the way, this happens especially when I run this script from a web server. From my local PHP server (on my dev platform), the script works perfectly!! It is weird that without getting ANY errors as such (like variable undefined etc.) I am unable to show this code on the welcome page. The code display is needed to let the user know that he/she can run the reports ONLY by providing this code for running reports as a parameter. I am clueless as to what could be wrong! The following code shows username stored properly by using $_SESSION['name'] directly! But not $_SESSION['cd']!! though the value exists for it (else would have got the error in the report)!!!!

Please help! Could it be the issue of web-server not configured properly for PHP? Why are session variables creating problems only on a web server and not on a local server? Are these variables getting properly destroyed after the session ends? How do I find out?

Any help will be greatly appreciated in this matter!

Thank you in advance!
Mozart66

Hi Mozart,
if u look into your code you could find that you've wrote




instead of



This should be one possible problem. It should be also possible that 'cd' session value should not be stored correctly before this part of code.

If u need just ask.
Bye Paolo.

Thank you for a speedy reply! Truly appreciate it!

But I have already tried it ('cd' and "cd" both), without any success. The result is the same.

The above mentioned thing is happening on web server and not on local PHP server (on my comp). Any further help on this is appreciated!

The "cd" vs 'cd' is simply nonsense. Both literals create the exact same string (read the PHP manual on when double quoted and single quoted strings do differ).

We need more specific info. Give us the code where you generate the code and store it in the session. Make a var_dump() of the session right after session() start. I'm pretty sure there's some logical error, because session values usually don't just disappear.

You can also read the session. Open your php.ini to see where the session files are stored (session.save_path) and then open them. They're in a human readable format.

Hi!

Here's the authenticate.php file where I am storing $_SESSION variables.



My 'users' table has userid, name, password and usercode fields in it.

Thanks!

Hi!

Look what I got after the var_dump on the web_server!

array(3) { ["logged_in"]=> bool(true) ["id"]=> string(1) "1" ["name"]=> string(4) "PUNE" }

Fourth $SESSION variable 'cd' isn't getting defined!! Why so? I have already included my authenticate.php script in my previous post.

Please help. It's weird.
Thanks in advance!

maybe try doing a var_dump or print_r of $row after to check that the data is coming back from the DB as you expect.

also as a side note, you are wide open to sql injection with that code. Never trust post or get data, it can very easily be modified by a user to force a login, or dump usernames / passwords / emails etc.

look into using PDO and prepared statements or at the very least sanitise your inputs.

Have you checked that the field name in your database is spelt the same as the one you are trying to reference?

Also, is the code in your first post the code which follows from the authenticate.php file?

Regards,

NM.

Yes, the code in the first post is the same code that follows authenticate.php

I realize you learned PHP on your own, probably using some horrific tutorial that pops up at the head of the Google search results, so please understand I mean this in the best possible way:

Your code is horrible. It is wrong and full of security holes.

Please ditch what you're doing and start over, using this tutorial as your guide.

Thank you so much for the good input! I am a newbie so I appreciate this help greatly! I have sanitized my inputs in my starting script (which I haven't included here) and now the script seems to be working on its own after I tried doing var_dump of $row and $_SESSION variables!!! Now I am getting the result exactly as I want it to be! The code is also getting displayed on the welcome page! All I did was just added var_dump, tested it and once the results could be seen, I removed it and tested it again! It worked like a charm!!!

THANK YOU ALL! Have learnt some new things such as var_sump, print_r, PDO! I am learning PHP on my own and hence your guidance is very valuable to me!

Since I have got my answer, the mods may close this thread!