Question

I am creating a notification class which uses the session to store messages. I need to create them as a multidimensional array, so I can take advantage of different ‘namespaces’, so as to keep messages from displaying on the wrong pages.

Here is an example:

print_r($_SESSION)
Array
(
    [EVENT_CMS] => Array
    (
        [Notifier] => Array
        (
            [0] => 'Your settings have been saved.'
            [1] => 'You must re-upload...'
        )
    )
)

Now on the settings page, these messages will print with a call to the proper method.

I am having trouble setting up the message container within the class. This is what my constructor looks like:

public function __construct($namespace = 'Notifier') {
    $this->_session_start();

    if(defined('SESSION_NAMESPACE')){
        $this->notifications =& $_SESSION[SESSION_NAMESPACE][$namespace];
    } else {
        $this->notifications =& $_SESSION[$namespace];
    }
}

(The SESSION_NAMESPACE constant is defined, so the true block is executed.)

$Notify = new Notifier();
$Notify->add($_GET['test']);

print_r($_SESSION);

The above code yields me this array:

$_SESSION
Array
(
    [EVENT_CMS] => Array
    (
        [Notifier] => 1
    )

)

---

The add message method should update the session, right? Since the notifications array is a reference? The call to update_session() has no effect on the output…

public function add($message, $class = NULL) {
    $message_node = $message;
    $this->notifications[] = $message_node;

    $this->update_session();
}

public function update_session(){
    $this->SESSION[$this->namespace] &= $this->notifications;
}

Answer 1

You are mixing up the bitwise operator with the reference operator. The wrong one is used in your update_session() method.