Question

I dabble in PHP. In the projects I’ve done I always use the database and a cookie to handle sessions. I’ve seen “session functions” such as session_start() being used also in other sources. I’m just curious, which is better? Should I be using one or another?

Answer 1

Well, there’s three ways that I’ve used through-out time:

1. The traditional $_COOKIE-way, meaning that you actually use cookies to store values
2. The “new” $_SESSION-way, where you use an associative array that probably relies on a cookie
3. Using $_SESSION in conjunction with the DB, making sessions controllable on a user-basis.

I prefer using option #3, as it both enables me to alter sessions “on-the-fly”, as well as track the logged in users easier.

Options #3 would play out in the following way (semi-pseudo):

<?php
    //Start the session
    session_start();

    //Get the session data
    $_SESSION['user'] = retrieveSessionDataFromDB($_SESSION['user']['unique_id']);

    //Profit
?>