Accessing PHP Session Variables in Multiple Files

Question

I have a school project where I'm trying to use session variables to save a log in ID, however I can't seem to access the session variables across files. I'm relatively new to sessions, but have gotten them to work in simpler applications on the same server that I am using for this project. The program works as follows:

getData.php is the log in form where the user enters their ID and password. front.php collects data from this form and forwards it to another server (of another group member) using php curl. Since this is not my part, I do not have this code. After accessing a database, information from the database is forwarded back to me, also using curl and I format it in a table, in tList.php.

The problem is that the session variables do not seem to be accessible between the files on MY SERVER. The exact goal I am trying to accomplish is to access the session variables that I create in front.php on tList.php, however the variables are not set even though I assign them in front.php.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

getData.php:

<?php

session_start();

?>

<html>
<head>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/style.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/b.css">
    <link href="../css/test.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

</head>

<body>

<script type="text/javascript">

    function status_toggle() {

        if(document.getElementById('stud').checked) {

            document.getElementById('sl').style.display='block';
            document.getElementById('tl').style.display='none';

        } else if(document.getElementById('teach').checked) {

            document.getElementById('sl').style.display='none';
            document.getElementById('tl').style.display='block';

        }
    }

</script>

<!-- Status Selection -->

<form name="radio" class="nav selection_form" action="" align="center">

    <div align="center" class="">
        Are you a <br>
        Student <input id="stud" type="radio" name="status" value="student" onclick="javascript:status_toggle();" checked>
        &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp or &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp
        Teacher <input id="teach" type="radio" name="status" value="teacher" onclick="javascript:status_toggle();">
    </div>

</form>

<!-- Student Form -->

<form id="sl" name="student_login" action="front.php" class="input-block my_form" autocomplete="on" method="post">

    <div align="center">
        Username: <input type="text" name="txtUCID" size="15" /><br />
        Password: <input type="password" name="txtPasswd" size="15" /><br />
            <p><input class="btn-red" id="submit" type="submit"  value="Login" /></p>
    </div>

</form>

<form style="display:none" id="tl" name="teacher_login" action="front.php" class="input-block my_form" autocomplete="on" method="post">

    <div align="center">
        Username: <input type="text" name="teacherTxtUCID" size="15" /><br />
        Password: <input type="password" name="teacherTxtPasswd" size="15" /><br />
            <p><input class="btn-grn" id="submit" type="submit"  value="Login" /></p>
    </div>

</form>

<div align="center" class="alert_box input-block my_form">

        <h2 align="center" type="text" id="local_db"> change me!</h2>
        <h2 align="center" type="text" id="njit_db"> change me!</h2>

</div>

</body>

</html>

front.php:

<?php
session_start();

$un = $_POST["txtUCID"];
$pw = $_POST["txtPasswd"];

$_SESSION['id'] = $un;

$curl = curl_init('web.njit.edu/~mc332/cs_490/loginSTD.php');

$postData= array(

    'txtUCID' => $un,
    'txtPasswd' => $pw

);

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(

    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 0,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $postData,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => 1,
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 5

));

echo $_SESSION['id'];

$result = curl_exec ($curl);

curl_close ($curl);

tList.php

<?php
session_start();
?>

<html>

<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/style.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="list.css">
</head>

<body>

<div class="header">
    Your Tests
</div>

<div class="list-view">

    <?php
        echo "SV: ".$_SESSION['id'];

        $result = $_POST['tests'];

        echo "<table>";
        echo "<tr><th>Test ID</th><th>Test Name</th><th>Attempted</th><th>Score</th><th> Attempt Test </th></tr>";

        $json = json_decode($result);

        $i = 0;
        while($i < count($json)) {

            $id = $json[$i][0];
            $name = $json[$i][1];

            $tId = $id;

            echo "<tr> <td> $id </td> <td> $name </td> <td> ? </td> <td> ?/100 </td> <td> <form method=\"post\" action=\"goToTest.php\" id=\"form$tId\"><button type=\"submit\">Take Test</button></input><input type=\"text\" style=\"display: none;\" name=\"poop\" value=\"$tId\"></input></form></td> </tr>";

            $i++;
        }

        echo "</table>";

        echo "end";

    ?>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Here is the working application:

file1:

<?php
session_start();

$_SESSION['test'] = "test";

echo "<a href=\"t2.php\">Click</a>";

?>

file2:

<?php
session_start();

echo $_SESSION['test'];

?>

Cayde 6 · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 20:13:59Z

1

The session_start() function must appear BEFORE the tag

<?php session_start(); ?>

<html>
<body>

</body>
</html>

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_sessions.asp

Try this to make sure you are passing valid values into the SESSION variable.

 <?php
    session_start();
    if (!empty($_POST["txtUCID"])){
      $_SESSION['id'] = $_POST["txtUCID"];
    } else {
    $_SESSION['id'] = 'no value set';
    }
echo $_SESSION['id'];

edited Mar 3, 2014 at 20:13

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 19:42

Cayde 6

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7 Comments

Mike Over a year ago

The session_start() function appears before the <html> tag in all appropriate locations. Does it have to be before <--!Doctype html--> ?

Cayde 6 Over a year ago

Yes. It has to be before any html, including white space

Mike Over a year ago

Unfortunately, that did not fix the problem. The two files that really matter have the session_start() as the first line of code (inside <?php ?> of course). I just opened the session in the first file to see if it would work, but I did change it to how you said just to make sure.

Cayde 6 Over a year ago

Are you getting any error responses from your server? Also, in front.php you are setting a session variable to a value set by POST. Are you sure that value is already set?

symcbean Over a year ago

As user2547075 says, the code you have shown us has content BEFORE the opening PHP tag. If you were not already seeing errors in your logs then you've also got issues with your error reporting. Fix the latter first. Then check for BOM markers in your source code, then check your sessions cookies are being set by the server and returned by the browser.

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