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  Classes of Michael A. Peters   MDB2 Session Manager   README.txt   Download  
File: README.txt
Role: Documentation
Content type: text/plain
Description: README file
Class: MDB2 Session Manager
Handler for storing session data with MDB and APC
Author: By
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Date: 14 years ago
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This class uses a database for session management opposed to flat file. It replaces the built in php session management. In addition to using a database for storing session data, if your server is equipped with APC it will cache the session data for a brief time reducing the number of database calls needed for your session based web application to properly function. APC is a soft dependency, the class will use it if it is available but the class is 100% fully functional on servers without APC. Note that even though APC will reduce necessary database calls when reading session data, writing session data still always will require a database call. This is necessary because data in an APC cache can be deleted before it expires if the cache runs out of allocated memory or is otherwise completely dumped. Database connection is done with Pear::MDB2. MDB2 is a hard dependency. The class should work with any database that is properly supported by MDB2, but I have only tested it with MySQL. The class was originally written by Rich Smith 2007-05-02 and published on the web at http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/Storing-PHP-Sessions-in-a-Database/ I ported the class to use MDB2 and added the APC cache functions. CONFIGURING CLASS public $sesstable = 'new_sessions'; Change to the DB table name you are using for session management private $apcSalt = '2d8lyds45a@&0KLybafz'; Used to obfuscate the sessions in the APC cache to make it more difficult for a cracker to get session IDs if they manage to get a dump of the APC cache. It would be a good idea to change the string to something else on your install of this class. private $apcMaxLife = 1500; Lifetime of the session cache. It is intentionally somewhat short (25 minutes) to reduce the likelihood of session data filling your APC cache causing other cached content to be dropped. Most user sessions will be less than 25 minutes on most web sites, and when it does expire in cache, the session data can still be retrieved from the database, so no harm is done to session management by using a short cache life. CREATING THE DATABASE The following works to create a database in MySQL. Adjust it for other databases. CREATE TABLE new_sessions ( session_id varchar(32) NOT NULL default '', session_data text, expires int(11) NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (session_id) ) ENGINE = MYISAM; USING THE CLASS Before your php script starts a session, require the file containing the class and pass it the handle of your MDB2 connection. For example: <?php require_once('db_connect.inc.php'); // file where you set mdb2 handle require_once('sessions_apc.php'); ini_set('session.cookie_httponly',1); // suggested for security $sess = new SessionManager($mdb2); // initialize the class session_start(); // start the session management -=- Original Class by Rich Smith: http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/Storing-PHP-Sessions-in-a-Database/ Pear::MDB2: http://pear.php.net/MDB2 APC: http://pecl.php.net/package/APC