Apache :: Questions about session behavior

jhsachs · Joined: 03 Aug 2010 Posts: 8 Location: Northern California

My client has some needs that seem to be best met by using session variables, which naturally require sessions. I haven't worked with sessions before, and I need some advice.

I don't have problems with the mechanics of defining and using sessions. I need to know about the subtler aspects of their behavior, such as gotchas to watch out for.

I'm particularly concerned about continuity of sessions. Suppose, for example, that a user is in the middle of a session and her browser crashes, or she suffers a power outage. When she returns to the site, will the server automatically recognize her and restore the session? If not, can my script do that for her, and what is the best way to do it? Is there a reasonably graceful way to restore her to the page she was on at the time of the crash if she enters the URL of the site's home page, instead of the page she was on?

This question is kind of open ended. The items above are examples of the kind of things I need to know, but the information I really need is the information that I don't know I need to ask for!

James Blond

I guess this is more related to your web page programming rather than apache itself.

jhsachs · Joined: 03 Aug 2010 Posts: 8 Location: Northern California

Is that a meaningful distinction? Sessions are managed by the server, and session continuity is the server's responsibility. Actions I take to deal with situations the server can't handle itself will probably be implemented in scripts. I don't think we'll get much insight by considering one to the exclusion of the other.

I'm programming in PHP, in case that matters, but in my thinking, it's incidental.

James Blond

If you are using PHP the sessions are handled by PHP. Of cause you can use cookies to reuse a session. But you are better ask in a PHP forum than in an apache forum.