Session Function Overview

Session functions implement a concept that you have already seen; that is, the provision to users of a unique identifier, which can then be used from access to access to acquire information linked to that ID. The difference is that most of the work is already done for you. When a user accesses a session-enabled page, the user is either allocated a new identifier or re-associated with one that was already established in a previous access. Any variables that have been associated with the session will become available to your code, through the $_SESSION superglobal.

When you use sessions, cookies are used by default to store the session identifier, but you can ensure success for all clients by encoding the session ID into all links in your session-enabled pages.

Session state is usually stored in a temporary file, though you can implement database storage using a function called session_set_save_handler(). The use of session_set_save_handler() is beyond the scope of this book, but you can find more information at http://www.php.net/session-set-save-handler.