Question

I try to access session variables stored on a different page. When I have cookies enabled it works, but the session variables are gone when I disable cookies.

Here’s an example:

<?php
//page1.php

session_start();

$_SESSION['startTime'] = time();

echo("<a href=\"page2.php?" . session_name() . "=" . session_id() . "\">Page2</a><br />\n");

echo("Session-ID: " . session_id() . "<br />");
echo("Session-Content: " . print_r($_SESSION));

// output:
// <a href="page2.php?PHPSESSID=ou1n4mrotvqc6dod41q8t0a432">Page2</a><br />
// Session-ID: ou1n4mrotvqc6dod41q8t0a432<br />Array
// (
//     [startTime] => 1339177944
// )
// Session-Content: 1
?>

<?php
//page2.php

session_start();

session_id($_GET[session_name()]);

echo("Session-ID: " . session_id() . "<br />\n");
echo("Session-Content: " . print_r($_SESSION));

session_destroy();

// output
// Session-ID: ou1n4mrotvqc6dod41q8t0a432<br />
// Array
// (
// )
// Session-Content: 1
?>

Am I doing something wrong? How can I use session variables whith cookies disabled?

Answer 1

You will need to change the php.ini setting session.use_only_cookies to 0 to allow the session id to be passed in the querystring. You may also want to use the magic constant SID instead of session_name() . "=" . session_id().