Class Session

This class is a wrapper for the native PHP session functions. It provides several defaults for the most common session configuration via external handlers and helps with using session in cli without any warnings.

Sessions can be created from the defaults using Session::create() or you can get an instance of a new session by just instantiating this class and passing the complete options you want to use.

When specific options are omitted, this class will take its defaults from the configuration values from the session.* directives in php.ini. This class will also alter such directives when configuration values are provided.

Namespace: Cake\Http

Properties summary

  • $_engine protected
    \SessionHandlerInterface

    The Session handler instance used as an engine for persisting the session data.

  • $_isCLI protected
    bool

    Whether this session is running under a CLI environment

  • $_lifetime protected
    int

    The time in seconds the session will be valid for

  • $_started protected
    bool

    Indicates whether the sessions has already started

Method Summary

  • __construct() public

    Constructor.

  • _defaultConfig() protected static

    Get one of the prebaked default session configurations.

  • _hasSession() protected

    Returns whether a session exists

  • _overwrite() protected

    Used to write new data to _SESSION, since PHP doesn't like us setting the _SESSION var itself.

  • _timedOut() protected

    Returns true if the session is no longer valid because the last time it was accessed was after the configured timeout.

  • check() public

    Returns true if given variable name is set in session.

  • clear() public

    Clears the session.

  • close() public

    Write data and close the session

  • consume() public

    Reads and deletes a variable from session.

  • create() public static

    Returns a new instance of a session after building a configuration bundle for it.

  • delete() public

    Removes a variable from session.

  • destroy() public

    Helper method to destroy invalid sessions.

  • engine() public

    Sets the session handler instance to use for this session.

  • id() public

    Returns the session id.

  • options() public

    Calls ini_set for each of the keys in $options and set them to the respective value in the passed array.

  • read() public

    Returns given session variable, or all of them, if no parameters given.

  • renew() public

    Restarts this session.

  • setEngine() protected

    Set the engine property and update the session handler in PHP.

  • start() public

    Starts the Session.

  • started() public

    Determine if Session has already been started.

  • write() public

    Writes value to given session variable name.

Method Detail

__construct() public 

__construct(array $config)

Constructor.

Configuration:

  • timeout: The time in minutes the session should be valid for.
  • cookiePath: The url path for which session cookie is set. Maps to the session.cookie_path php.ini config. Defaults to base path of app.
  • ini: A list of php.ini directives to change before the session start.
  • handler: An array containing at least the class key. To be used as the session engine for persisting data. The rest of the keys in the array will be passed as the configuration array for the engine. You can set the class key to an already instantiated session handler object.

Parameters

array $config optional

The Configuration to apply to this session object

_defaultConfig() protected static 

_defaultConfig(mixed $name)

Get one of the prebaked default session configurations.

Parameters

string $name

Config name.

Returns

bool|array

_hasSession() protected 

_hasSession()

Returns whether a session exists

Returns

bool

_overwrite() protected 

_overwrite(mixed $old, mixed $new)

Used to write new data to _SESSION, since PHP doesn't like us setting the _SESSION var itself.

Parameters

array $old

Set of old variables => values

array $new

New set of variable => value

_timedOut() protected 

_timedOut()

Returns true if the session is no longer valid because the last time it was accessed was after the configured timeout.

Returns

bool

check() public 

check(mixed $name)

Returns true if given variable name is set in session.

Parameters

string|null $name optional

Variable name to check for

Returns

bool

True if variable is there

clear() public 

clear(mixed $renew)

Clears the session.

Optionally it also clears the session id and renews the session.

Parameters

bool $renew optional

If session should be renewed, as well. Defaults to false.

close() public 

close()

Write data and close the session

Returns

bool

True if session was started

consume() public 

consume(mixed $name)

Reads and deletes a variable from session.

Parameters

string $name

The key to read and remove (or a path as sent to Hash.extract).

Returns

mixed

The value of the session variable, null if session not available, session not started, or provided name not found in the session.

create() public static 

create(mixed $sessionConfig)

Returns a new instance of a session after building a configuration bundle for it.

This function allows an options array which will be used for configuring the session and the handler to be used. The most important key in the configuration array is defaults, which indicates the set of configurations to inherit from, the possible defaults are:

  • php: just use session as configured in php.ini
  • cache: Use the CakePHP caching system as an storage for the session, you will need to pass the config key with the name of an already configured Cache engine.
  • database: Use the CakePHP ORM to persist and manage sessions. By default this requires a table in your database named sessions or a model key in the configuration to indicate which Table object to use.
  • cake: Use files for storing the sessions, but let CakePHP manage them and decide where to store them.

The full list of options follows:

  • defaults: either 'php', 'database', 'cache' or 'cake' as explained above.
  • handler: An array containing the handler configuration
  • ini: A list of php.ini directives to set before the session starts.
  • timeout: The time in minutes the session should stay active

Parameters

array $sessionConfig optional

Session config.

Returns

static

See Also

\Cake\Http\Session::__construct()

delete() public 

delete(mixed $name)

Removes a variable from session.

Parameters

string $name

Session variable to remove

destroy() public 

destroy()

Helper method to destroy invalid sessions.

engine() public 

engine(mixed $class, array $options)

Sets the session handler instance to use for this session.

If a string is passed for the first argument, it will be treated as the class name and the second argument will be passed as the first argument in the constructor.

If an instance of a SessionHandlerInterface is provided as the first argument, the handler will be set to it.

If no arguments are passed it will return the currently configured handler instance or null if none exists.

Parameters

string|\SessionHandlerInterface|null $class optional

The session handler to use

array $options optional

the options to pass to the SessionHandler constructor

Returns

\SessionHandlerInterface|null

Throws

InvalidArgumentException

id() public 

id(mixed $id)

Returns the session id.

Calling this method will not auto start the session. You might have to manually assert a started session.

Passing an id into it, you can also replace the session id if the session has not already been started. Note that depending on the session handler, not all characters are allowed within the session id. For example, the file session handler only allows characters in the range a-z A-Z 0-9 , (comma) and - (minus).

Parameters

string|null $id optional

Id to replace the current session id

Returns

string

Session id

options() public 

options(array $options)

Calls ini_set for each of the keys in $options and set them to the respective value in the passed array.

Example:

$session->options(['session.use_cookies' => 1]);

Parameters

array $options

Ini options to set.

Throws

RuntimeException
if any directive could not be set

read() public 

read(mixed $name)

Returns given session variable, or all of them, if no parameters given.

Parameters

string|null $name optional

The name of the session variable (or a path as sent to Hash.extract)

Returns

string|array|null

The value of the session variable, null if session not available, session not started, or provided name not found in the session.

renew() public 

renew()

Restarts this session.

setEngine() protected 

setEngine(\SessionHandlerInterface $handler)

Set the engine property and update the session handler in PHP.

Parameters

\SessionHandlerInterface $handler

The handler to set

Returns

\SessionHandlerInterface

start() public 

start()

Starts the Session.

Returns

bool

True if session was started

Throws

RuntimeException
if the session was already started

started() public 

started()

Determine if Session has already been started.

Returns

bool

True if session has been started.

write() public 

write(mixed $name, mixed $value)

Writes value to given session variable name.

Parameters

string|array $name

Name of variable

mixed $value optional

Value to write

Property Detail

$_engine protected

The Session handler instance used as an engine for persisting the session data.

Type

\SessionHandlerInterface

$_isCLI protected

Whether this session is running under a CLI environment

Type

bool

$_lifetime protected

The time in seconds the session will be valid for

Type

int

$_started protected

Indicates whether the sessions has already started

Type

bool

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https://api.cakephp.org/3.9/class-Cake.Http.Session.html