CodeIgniter cannot use session data after redirect()

Question

I was trying to build an application but I faced a problem with the session data. So I downloaded a new fresh CodeIgniter project and tried to work with the session but still failed. Here's what I did:

application/config/autoload.php:

$autoload['libraries'] = array('session');

$autoload['helper'] = array('url');

application/config/config.php:

$config['sess_save_path'] = 'D:\Projects\CodeIgnter-fresh\application\cache\session';

After that I created a controller called User.php

User.php

<?php

class User extends CI_Controller {

    public function index() {
        $this->session->set_userdata('somedata', 'somevalue');
        redirect('user/dashboard', 'refresh');
    }

    public function dashboard() {
        var_dump($this->session->userdata);
    }
}

The controller contains two simple methods. The index method sets some user data and after that redirects to the other method, which dumps the userdata. Unfortunately here's what I see:

It seems the only data I am able to see is some CodeIgniter data, but for sure the data I am trying to set is gone. Interesting thing I noticed was that in application/cache/session folder I can see some files with my data in it. So I guess it has to be some permission problem, but I cannot figure it out. Any suggestions?

I'm using:
OS: Windows 10 Education
PHP version: 7.2.11
CodeIgniter version: 3.1.10

Excuse me, I missed that information. My CodeIgniter version is 3.1.10 and my PHP version is 7.2.11 — Teddy G., May 29 '19 at 15:24
`$config['sess_save_path']` is set wrong, can't be `D:\etc`; see answers here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28385783/codeigniter-3-and-sessions — Vickel, May 29 '19 at 15:36
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45756370/codeigniter-session-is-not-working-on-php-7 Check This Answer and Try it....I hope You help — Ganesh Khartode, May 30 '19 at 06:59

Vickel · Answer 1 · 2019-05-29T20:56:46.393

I see 2 issues in this question:

not being able to write the session information to the disk using CI file driver
and
not being able to retrieve the session information

1. write the session information to the disk

The config.php at around line 344 says

'sess_save_path'

The location to save sessions to, driver dependent.

For the 'files' driver, it's a path to a writable directory. WARNING: Only absolute paths are supported!

IMPORTANT: You are REQUIRED to set a valid save path!

Therefore you need to set it either to false (nothing is saved) or use an absolute path. In order to make this work for development and production alike, you can use the PHP $_SERVER array and use it in your config.php like:

$config['sess_save_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/application/cache/session/';

finally you need to make sure, that above directory is writable, but only you have access to that directory (on production server).

P.S.: you see what's in $_SERVER using this line:

<?php echo'<pre>';print_r($_SERVER); ?>

2. retrieve the session information

make sure that you don't destroy the session in a previous function
keep in mind changing $config['cookie_domain'], $config['cookie_path'], $config['cookie_secure'] can affect sessions:

this setting works on my setup:

$config['sess_driver'] = 'files';
$config['sess_cookie_name'] = 'ci_session';
$config['sess_expiration'] = 7200;
$config['sess_save_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/application/cache/session/';
$config['sess_match_ip'] = FALSE;
$config['sess_time_to_update'] = 300;
$config['sess_regenerate_destroy'] = FALSE;

$config['cookie_prefix']    = '';
$config['cookie_domain']    = '';
$config['cookie_path']      = '/';
$config['cookie_secure']    = FALSE;
$config['cookie_httponly']  = FALSE;

If none of this works, you can still try to override autoload, putting this constructor into your User controller:

public function __construct(){
  parent::__construct();
  $this->load->library('session');
}

That's correct for sure. But I'm still not getting the session data, the result remains the same.. How can I check the permitions of the folder? — Teddy G., May 29 '19 at 17:10
I answered the question, as I thought you cannot store the session on your server using the 'files' driver. I just looked again at your dashboard function. It should be `var_dump( $this->session->userdata() );` — Vickel, May 29 '19 at 17:24
No matter what I dump: `$this->session->userdata` , `$this->session->userdata()` or even `$_SESSION` , I still get the same result... — Teddy G., May 29 '19 at 17:28
I'm sorry, I cannot reproduce this on my side, I used your functions and output is: array(8) { ["__ci_last_regenerate"]=> int(1559151567) ..etc... ["somedata"]=> string(9) "somevalue" }; maybe clear cache, or try in another browser? — Vickel, May 29 '19 at 17:47
one more thing comes in my mind, did you change the default cookie config? — Vickel, May 29 '19 at 19:03

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 29 '19 at 15:11

0

Set The Driver to 'files' in config:

$config['sess_driver'] = 'files';

Further Information here Codeigniter Session User Manual

answered May 29 '19 at 15:11

Sam Tigle

393
3
14

Actually it is set to 'files' by default, so the solution must be somewhere else :/ – Teddy G. May 29 '19 at 15:21

CodeIgniter cannot use session data after redirect()

2 Answers2