[jonnekke]

Hi there..

We run a Magento Webshop at the moment. This shop creates 8 sessions by itself.
For a affiliate program I want to add "my own" session (named: affiliate).

I create this with:

PHP Code:

$_SESSION['affiliate']  = 'yes'; 

When I echo my sessions this is in the list as it should be.. so far no problems.
Now I'm wondering how long the session lasts and can I set the lifetime for this
session only? So I don't mess up the other sessions that are created by Magento.

And is a session destroyed when the browser is closed, right? Or only after session_destroy
and after the lifetime expires?..

_j

[wirehopper]

Session data persists according to the php.ini settings - including the garbarge collection and cookie lifetime on the browser. Different approaches may be used to clean up session data. I use a cron job to clear unused sessions after 24 minutes.

Firefox (2 and 3) let me return to a session if I reopen the browser within a short time, IE doesn't. The session data lasts as long as the person is logged in, if they log out, the data may still be there, but it might not be accessible, or the data may be gone.

It's good to test for session variables with isset, although you can probably assume if it reached your code, a session is in progress.

If I were you, I'd just use the session variables as above and not worry about it.

[jonnekke]

is it also possible to get the remaining lifetime of a session?

I set it to:

PHP Code:

session_cache_expire(15);
session_start();

if(!isset($_SESSION['user'])){
    $uniek_sec = date("U");
    $uniek_ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    
    $uniek = md5(uniqid(microtime()) . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] . $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);    
    
    $_SESSION['user']  = $uniek;
    
} else {

echo"session still running";

} 

This should create a session with the name "user" that lasts for 15 min.
And then if the session exists it should echo the "session still running"
message.

If not it should create the user session as written above..

This is the way to do this?.

I noticed also that a session is not expired after 15 min.

_j

[wirehopper]

Sessions can be tricky, and the behavior varies by browser, server, and user actions.

I recommend trusting the cart's session management. As far as I know, there is only one session - although there may be many session variables.

What's really happening is that there is a file, usually stored in /tmp, with all the data for the session, which is read and updated as the user makes requests from and responds to the server. At the same time, there's a cookie on the client side, which stores the session id and perhaps some other data. The amount of time these files persist defines the length of the session.

When you work with open source software, the less you change, the better. Try to keep any modifications as simple as possible, and avoid modifying the original code - either fit into the architecture with modules, or use includes. It can be really difficult to avoid breaking the cart or adding security problems. If you feel like you need to make a lot of changes to use Magento, you might want to pick a different platform.

[therocket954]

Well said wirehopper. Upgrading becomes a nightmare when you have a slew of customizations.

[jonnekke]

okey...thnx for that.

go one more session question.... hope you guys can also help me out here.... this has nothing to do with Magento or any other opensource application

I got a script that stores a product in a session as someone add a product to his basket (no login customer).
The product will be saved in the session for 15 min and the adding-time is set to determin this lifetime.

There is a problem if someone leaves the site by closing his browser. The product is still saved for 15 min.
Is there a way to fix this so the product will be "free" again if someone close the browser?...

I can't imagine but maybe there some kind of way..?

_j

[wirehopper]

Unless the database is updated to indicate the product is in someone's cart, I'd just let the session time out and not worry about it.

The only other way would be to add a counter to indicate the number of each product in people's carts and update them as transactions completer or are abandoned.

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[jonnekke]

I'll think about how i'm gonna solve this.
Each product exists once.

I can't set the count back to 0 if someone
close his browser,so that wouldn't solve my
problem. I think i just let the product in
reservation for 15 min like it works right now.