CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpsession
bikey77
bikey77

Reputation: 6672

PHP session resets when switching through tabs on the same domain

I have a website (www.mysite.com) with a private backend (www.mysite.com/admin)

When I'm adding content to the site in the admin area and switch back and forth between tabs in the same browser window to see the content I'm editing, my session is getting expired/ended/terminated and I'm redirected to the login page again.

I have used the same code many-many times before on many web sites (this is a CMS I've made by myself) without a problem. The only thing I can think of is that this particular website is hosted on a different web server and maybe it's a matter of a php.ini setting or server configuration. Any ideas?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1914

Answers (7)

bikey77
bikey77

Reputation: 6672

The problem has been found after reading this topic.

I had a custom php.ini in the root dir and apparently it was interfering with the $_SESSION. I don't know why but after deleting it everything works fine.

At first it seemed as if the problem was opening pages located in different sub-folders in several browser tabs however it narrows down to a sub-folders issue and the fact that the $_SESSION wasn't accessible across them.

I'd like to thank everyone that put some time into trying to help me figure this out.

Upvotes: 0

Matt S
Matt S

Reputation: 15364

A few things to check:

  • session.cookie_lifetime setting - Possibly too short; 0 is the default and keeps the cookie until the browser closes
  • session.cookie_path setting - You'll want this to be '/'
  • Session storage - Make sure the session data is being written.
  • Explicitly call session_close() if your sessions are stored in a database. That will ensure they are written before your objects and database resources are destroyed.
  • If serving through any sort of proxy, check for any changed header information.
  • If caching, check your dynamic pages (requiring sessions) are being served by your web app and not the cache.
  • If testing with your local /etc/hosts, first clear your cookies so the new server's cookies are fresh and don't conflict.
  • Confirm in your browser that the cookie is in fact being stored. Maybe it's not actually coming back in the header.

Upvotes: 1

Mic1780
Mic1780

Reputation: 1794

From experience, I can tell you a few things.

First, sessions need to be started with

session_start();

At the top of every page you want to use sessions.

Next, to save session data, you need to call another function to tell php that you are saving stored data. That function is

Session_write_close();

That function is needed on the bottom of the page when you are finished writing data to a session and want it saved for later use.

With those two combined, that should allow you to properly write to a session, save the data you entered into it, and access it later on your site.

Good luck.

Upvotes: 0

ravi404
ravi404

Reputation: 7309

There could be several reasons. As there is no code or no details about the site provided , I am assuming that the problem might be if you are using htpasswd. If u are using htaccess authentication, then your session gets destroyed.

Upvotes: 0

L0j1k
L0j1k

Reputation: 12625

This could be a result of several things, but my first instinct is to check and see if the session cookies are expiring very quickly. Sometimes server headers may change expiry values. You may also want to check the cache headers being sent by the server. If you are using asynchronous functionality on the admin area, it is possible that somehow the server is changing the expiry of cached files which could affect this.

I am eager to see the solution to this.

Upvotes: 1

Manolis Agkopian
Manolis Agkopian

Reputation: 1094

I had a problem like this before. I was just uploaded a site from my localhost to a remote host, and I haven't change the nameservers yet. The hosting company provided me with a temporary url to be able to see my website. The problem was that this url was like this https://server_name.grserver.gr:8443/sitepreview/http/my_site.gr/, the result was that any browser didn't accepted the session cookie because I didn't had an SSL sertificate so the sessions didn't worked at all. I browsed a little the plesk panel and I found an other temporary url that was using http protocol, with this everything was ok. So if you are using https try to check if you have a problem with your ssl sertificate (for expample if it has expired). You said the problem occurs when you login in the admin page, do you switch then to https?

Upvotes: 0

Linkmichiel
Linkmichiel

Reputation: 2130

Have you checked your browser cookies? (the actual client-side ones?) or tried your luck with another browser? It may sound a bit strange, but I had a similar problem and in my case it had to do with these cookies. It may be worth figuring out because of your odd problem. As you might know the phpsession value is stored in that cookie and so is the domain. Good luck!

Upvotes: 1

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