SESSIONS

[jantox@gmail.com]

Good day,

We have some Java programmers in our software dev, and they are
pressuring us to use Sessions to store data and use that Session to get
query data. They say that it is ok since it is like Entities in Java. I
am baffled as a .NET programmer, we tend to avoid using sessions and
instead use DataSet, is there any equivalent of dataset in PHP?

[Erwin Moller]

Re: SESSIONS

jantox@gmail.co m wrote:
[color=blue]
> Good day,
>
> We have some Java programmers in our software dev, and they are
> pressuring us to use Sessions to store data and use that Session to get
> query data. They say that it is ok since it is like Entities in Java. I
> am baffled as a .NET programmer, we tend to avoid using sessions and
> instead use DataSet, is there any equivalent of dataset in PHP?[/color]

Hi,

I would NOT advise storing a complete resultset in your session.
If you store it simply in your session, you store a resourceID, which is
unusable next invocation of any script using the same session.

You can however store an array-representation of the resultset in your
session.

If you use ADODB as a databaseabstrac tionlayer, you can do the following:
$res = $conn->Execute($SQL )->GetArray();

Beware however that big resultsets stored in session is asking for
performancetrou bles.

Also, if you want to see your session:
<pre>
<? print_r($_SESSI ON); ?>
</pre>

Regards,
Erwin Moller

[Jerry Stuckle]

Re: SESSIONS

jantox@gmail.co m wrote:[color=blue]
> Good day,
>
> We have some Java programmers in our software dev, and they are
> pressuring us to use Sessions to store data and use that Session to get
> query data. They say that it is ok since it is like Entities in Java. I
> am baffled as a .NET programmer, we tend to avoid using sessions and
> instead use DataSet, is there any equivalent of dataset in PHP?
>[/color]

One thing to remember is with PHP information does not survive the page unless
it is stored externally.

Sessions are a very convenient and safe way to store the data. Data is stored
locally on the server and only the session ID is stored in the client's browser.
PHP handles the sessions quite well; all you need to do is place
session_start() at the beginning of each page where you wish to use sessions.
If no session has been previously started, a new one is created. Otherwise the
existing session is used.

Then you can set and retrieve data from the $_SESSION superglobal array, just
like any other superglobal, i.e.

a.php
session_start() ;
$_SESSION['counter'] = 1;

b.php
session_start() ;
$myvar = $_SESSION['counter'];

Quick, easy and convenient.

Now - I wouldn't use sessions to store a megabyte of data or more, because the
entire array would be read into memory. This could cause performance problems.
But if you need to store that much perhaps you need to rethink your structure
a little more. A database might be more reasonable, depending on your needs.





--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

[Dikkie Dik]

Re: SESSIONS

A session is like a shopping cart or a theater's wardrobe. It is a piece
of storage assigned to a visitor.
What you put in a session are mostly things that should remain on the
server, because you do not want the visitor to be able to mess with it.
For instance, a login function can return a role, that determines access
rights. You can store this role in the session, but you do not want to
store it in a hidden form variable in HTML.
Sessions in PHP are not fundamentally different from those in .NET.
There is a session array that can be filled with anything serializable
and in some cases more.

So you do not have to store every query result, but a session can be a
good place to store intermediate results that are needed later. Sessions
are the "trick" that make a bunch of stateless http-calls look like a
continuously running web application.

Best regards

jantox@gmail.co m wrote:[color=blue]
> Good day,
>
> We have some Java programmers in our software dev, and they are
> pressuring us to use Sessions to store data and use that Session to get
> query data. They say that it is ok since it is like Entities in Java. I
> am baffled as a .NET programmer, we tend to avoid using sessions and
> instead use DataSet, is there any equivalent of dataset in PHP?
>[/color]