note 112973 added to function.session-start

A note about session_start(), custom handlers and database foreign key constraints, which I think may be of some use... We know that if we want our sessions into a database table (rather than the default storage), we can refer to session_set_save_handler(...) to get them there. Note that session_set_save_handler must (obviously) be called before session_start(), but let me get to the point... Upon calling session_start() the "first time", when the session does not already exist, php will spawn a new session but will not call the write handler until script execution finishes. Thus, the session at this point exists in the server process memory, but won't be visible as a row in the DB before the script ends. This seems reasonable, because this avoids some unnecessary database access and resource usage before we even populate our session with meaningfull and definitive data, but this also has side-effects. In my case, the script called session_start() to make sure a session was initiated, then used session_id() to populate another table in the DB, which had foreign_key constraint to the "sessions" table. This failed because no session was in the db at that point, yet! I know I could simply force the creation of the row in the DB by manually calling the write handler after session_start(), when necessary, but I am not sure if this is the best possible approach. As soon as I find an "elegant" solution, or a completely different approach, I will post some working sample code. In the meanwhile... have fun! ---- Server IP: 69.147.83.199 Probable Submitter: 93.41.207.171 ---- Manual Page -- http://php.net/manual/en/function.session-start.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/112973 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/112973 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/112973 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php