HTTP Session

The HTTP Session class is a convenient wrapper around PHP's built-in session handling. This module provides a useful interface for getting and setting data in the session plus additional features not readily available with PHP's native session handling.

Example Usage:

Valhalla's session handler is quite easy to use. The class is a convenient singleton which handles everything for you.

$session = HttpSession::getInstance();
$session->get('username');

You can even adjust the default PHP session handling method:

$mySession = new \MySession();
session_set_save_handler(
    array(&$mySession, 'open'),
    array(&$mySession, 'close'),
    array(&$mySession, 'read'),
    array(&$mySession, 'write'),
    array(&$mySession, 'destroy'),
    array(&$mySession, 'gc')
);
$session = HttpSession::getInstance(); //this will now use the user-defined session handler
$session->get('username');

Available Functions:

Here is a list of available functions for the HTTP session class and how they work:

startSession:

Parameters: None

Return Values: Returns a boolean indicating whether the session has been successfully started.

Starts the session (or restarts) and returns the session's status.

get:

Parameters:

• string $attribute

Return Values: Returns a string containing the requested data from the session, or false if not found.

Retrieves a particular attribute from the session.

set:

Parameters:

• string $attribute
• string $value

Return Values: None

Set an attribute in the session.

getFlashMessage:

Parameters: None

Return Values: Returns a string containing the flash message or false if there was none.

Gets flash messages, i.e. messages that should be consumed only once and then are removed automatically.

setFlashMessage:

Parameters:

• string $message

Return Values: None

Sets the flash message.

regenerateId:

Parameters: None

Return Values: None

Resets the session id. This function should be called when a user is logged in to prevent session fixation.

destroySession:

Parameters: None

Return Values: None

Destroy the current session.

getSession:

Parameters: None

Return Values: Returns an array containing the current $_SESSION data.

setSession:

Parameters:

• array $session

Return Values: None

Sets the $_SESSION based on the parameters.

getInstance:

Parameters: None

Return Values: Returns the existing instance of HttpSession or creates one and then returns it.