Has anyone created a PHP Session-like class in user code (not native)?

Question

The native PHP Session functionality is great, but it's ultimately a singleton. There are times when you need to maintain state for multiple apps and in the scope of an already-started session (e.g. in an app framework). Technically one can stop/restart a session after changing session_name(), but this is impractical/impossible/unsafe within most apps. Using a shared session.save_path is also not an option if one app stores session data with a non-disk adapter.

There's no reason the functionality in native sessions can't be done in user code, so has anyone done this?

Update 1: CI_Session is indeed a userland implementation with some useful code, but it's highly coupled to CodeIgniter.

Update 2: Here's an API that would be great:

// setup
$saveHandler = new UserlandSession_SaveHandler_Files('5;/tmp');
$sess = new UserlandSession($saveHandler);
$sess->name('PHPSESSID2');
$sess->gc_maxlifetime = 86400;
$sess->setProxy($state); // passed by ref
// usage
$sess->start(); // stored string unserialized to $state
$state['foo'] = 'bar';
$sess->write_close(); // $state serialized to storage

Update 3: I've written an implementation for PHP5.3.

You can create your own session handler system using http://php.net/manual/en/function.session-set-save-handler.php, using any kind of back-end storage system you want. — Marc B, May 19 '11 at 16:06
+1 Thanks for raising this question - and any answers that may appear - this is great functionality I never thought of. — Bojangles, May 19 '11 at 16:12
@Marc B: You can't have two sessions active simultaneously is the problem. — Steve Clay, May 20 '11 at 02:13
@JamWaffles: Besides the practical use, a userland implementation would also give insight into how native sessions actually operate. — Steve Clay, May 20 '11 at 02:23
@mrclay: true, but once you're rolling your own handlers, no reason you can't store things in a different session variable. You just lose the benefits of having a superglobal available throughout your code. — Marc B, May 20 '11 at 04:25
@Marc: That's the only issue I can see with RYO - scope. Other than that, it's wonderful due to the fact you can store stuff in a database or whatever. Maybe writing a wrapper for `$_SESSION` would be a good idea? — Bojangles, May 20 '11 at 07:40

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 19 '11 at 16:15

2

CodeIgniter has a session class that does not utilize native PHP sessions.

answered May 19 '11 at 16:15

Sean Walsh

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Thanks, this could make a decent start; it's highly coupled to CI. – Steve Clay May 20 '11 at 02:11
1

Yah, I haven't actually looked at the code for it, I was just aware of its existence. Hope it helps! :) – Sean Walsh May 20 '11 at 05:20
Accepting your answer, but the real answer seems to be "not really" :) – Steve Clay Jun 10 '11 at 18:13
Sorry you didn't receive a more comprehensive answer - good luck if you are continuing to research! – Sean Walsh Jun 10 '11 at 18:49

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 28 '13 at 13:10

I wrote UserlandSession in response to this.

It's a pure PHP implementation of "sessions" that can be used to bridge a session between arbitrary PHP apps. It does not interfere with native sessions, has an OO storage API (more like PHP 5.4), and has an API similar to native sessions.

It comes with filesystem and PDO storage handlers and an interface to make it easier to write your own.

Has anyone created a PHP Session-like class in user code (not native)?

2 Answers2

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