CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Eric
Eric

Reputation: 7877

PHP Persist variable across all requests

In some languages C# or .NET this would be a static variable, but in PHP the memory is cleared after each request. I want the value to persist across all requests. I don't wan't $_SESSION because that is different for each user.

To help explain here is an example: I want to have a script like this that will count up. No matter which user/browser opens the url.

<?php
function getServerVar($name){
    ...
}
function setServerVar($name,$val){
    ...
}
$count = getServerVar("count");
$count++;
setServerVar("count", $count);
echo $count;

I want the value stored in memory. It will not be something that needs to persist when apache restarts and the data is not that important that it needs to be thread safe.

UPDATE: I'm fine if it holds different values per server in a loadbalanced environment. Static variables in C# or Java will not be in sync either.

Upvotes: 11

Views: 8428

Answers (4)

Fabiano
Fabiano

Reputation: 5199

The only way to do that is, like bspates said, a tool that does not depend on any resource on your server. If you have various servers, you cannot rely on memory-based mechanisms on each machine. You have to store this number outside the servers, because each server will store the value for its own file or memory.

File writting, like $_SESSION, will work if you have only one server to receive your requests. For more than one server, you need any type of database where all your servers will communicate with.

Upvotes: 0

Reza Alizade
Reza Alizade

Reputation: 318

One of the simplest ways is to change SESSION's behavior, although you couldn't have regular sessions anymore.

All you have to do is to add the below code before session_start(). This code makes session_id the same for all requests and therefore assumes all of them being in one session (even if you change it from the browser's Storage tab, server still sends the below code):

session_id('fq8aapoka3331'); // Or any other random and fixed phrase

IMPORTANT: You have to do some work in order to increase sessions duration such as changing lifetime with session_set_cookie_params, and changing session.save_path (in shared hostings) and session.gc_maxlifetime with ini_set

Upvotes: -1

Petah
Petah

Reputation: 46050

You would typically use a database to store the count.

However as an alternative you could do so using a file:

<?php
$file = 'count.txt';
if (!file_exists($file)) {
    touch($file);
}

//Open the File Stream
$handle = fopen($file, "r+");

//Lock File, error if unable to lock
if(flock($handle, LOCK_EX)) {
    $size = filesize($file);
    $count = $size === 0 ? 0 : fread($handle, $size); //Get Current Hit Count
    $count = $count + 1; //Increment Hit Count by 1
    echo $count;
    ftruncate($handle, 0); //Truncate the file to 0
    rewind($handle); //Set write pointer to beginning of file
    fwrite($handle, $count); //Write the new Hit Count
    flock($handle, LOCK_UN); //Unlock File
} else {
    echo "Could not Lock File!";
}

//Close Stream
fclose($handle);

Upvotes: 2

bspates
bspates

Reputation: 412

In php your going to have to use an external store that all servers share. The most commonly used tool is memcached, but sql and redis both work fine for this use case.

Upvotes: 3

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