\Cake\HttpSession

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.

Summary

Methods
Properties
Constants
create()
__construct()
engine()
options()
start()
close()
started()
check()
read()
consume()
write()
id()
delete()
destroy()
clear()
renew()
No public properties found
No constants found
_defaultConfig()
setEngine()
_overwrite()
_hasSession()
_timedOut()
$_engine
$_started
$_lifetime
$_isCLI
N/A
No private methods found
No private properties found
N/A

Properties

$_engine

$_engine : \SessionHandlerInterface

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

Type

\SessionHandlerInterface

$_started

$_started : boolean

Indicates whether the sessions has already started

Type

boolean

$_lifetime

$_lifetime : integer

The time in seconds the session will be valid for

Type

integer

$_isCLI

$_isCLI : boolean

Whether this session is running under a CLI environment

Type

boolean

Methods

create()

create(array  $sessionConfig = array()) : static

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

Session config.

Returns

static

__construct()

__construct(array  $config = array()) 

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

The Configuration to apply to this session object

engine()

engine(string|\SessionHandlerInterface|null  $class = null, array  $options = array()) : \SessionHandlerInterface|null

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

The session handler to use

array $options

the options to pass to the SessionHandler constructor

Throws

\InvalidArgumentException

Returns

\SessionHandlerInterface|null

options()

options(array  $options) : void

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

start()

start() : boolean

Starts the Session.

Throws

\RuntimeException

if the session was already started

Returns

boolean —

True if session was started

close()

close() : boolean

Write data and close the session

Returns

boolean —

True if session was started

started()

started() : boolean

Determine if Session has already been started.

Returns

boolean —

True if session has been started.

check()

check(string|null  $name = null) : boolean

Returns true if given variable name is set in session.

Parameters

string|null $name

Variable name to check for

Returns

boolean —

True if variable is there

read()

read(string|null  $name = null) : string|array|null

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

Parameters

string|null $name

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.

consume()

consume(string  $name) : mixed

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.

write()

write(string|array  $name, mixed  $value = null) : void

Writes value to given session variable name.

Parameters

string|array $name

Name of variable

mixed $value

Value to write

id()

id(string|null  $id = null) : string

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

Id to replace the current session id

Returns

string —

Session id

delete()

delete(string  $name) : void

Removes a variable from session.

Parameters

string $name

Session variable to remove

destroy()

destroy() : void

Helper method to destroy invalid sessions.

clear()

clear(boolean  $renew = false) : void

Clears the session.

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

Parameters

boolean $renew

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

renew()

renew() : void

Restarts this session.

_defaultConfig()

_defaultConfig(string  $name) : boolean|array

Get one of the prebaked default session configurations.

Parameters

string $name

Config name.

Returns

boolean|array

setEngine()

setEngine(\SessionHandlerInterface  $handler) : \SessionHandlerInterface

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

Parameters

\SessionHandlerInterface $handler

The handler to set

Returns

\SessionHandlerInterface

_overwrite()

_overwrite(array  $old, array  $new) : void

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

_hasSession()

_hasSession() : boolean

Returns whether a session exists

Returns

boolean

_timedOut()

_timedOut() : boolean

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

Returns

boolean