Can't get session variable in modx.

103 Posts

phacer Reply #1, 13 years, 10 months ago

I have an external script that works like a gateway. When a user enters here a session is created and the user is redirected to a page within modx.

session_start();
$_SESSION['validSession'] = 'yes';

Thin in modx when entering any page I have a snippet running that should check is session variable. But when I look for that session variable its empty.

This is how I look for it in the snippet:

if ($_SESSION['validSession'] != 'yes') {
    ...
}

How can I find this session variable in modx?

This question has been answered by sottwell. See the first response.

[ed. note: phacer last edited this post 13 years, 10 months ago.]

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André

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sottwell Reply #2, 13 years, 10 months ago

You have to set the session_name to be the same as the MODx session. Around line 19 of the core/config/config.inc.php file defines the session name; this is a unique value generated during installation.

So you can just include the core/config/config.inc.php file in your .php script, and use the $session_name.

include 'path-to-/core/config/config.inc.php';
session_name($session_name);
session_start();

You may also be able to use a snippet for the script, as the content of a resource with no template. In that case it would already have all the MODx functionality. It depends on how the script is being implemented.

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opengeek Reply #3, 13 years, 10 months ago

If you want your script to authenticate a MODX user and redirect them to a protected page, you will need to log the user in to the appropriate Contexts in MODX from the same domain as the site. Do not create the session yourself if you expect MODX to use it, because MODX has very specific requirements for populating the session data. If your goal is to start a session and use MODX within your script, then you should be able to manage your session as you desire to.

Jason Coward
Chief Architect @ MODX
http://www.jasoncoward.com | http://twitter.com/drumshaman | https://github.com/opengeek

103 Posts

phacer Reply #4, 13 years, 10 months ago

Thanks Susan,
your second suggestion with a new resource worked very well. =)

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sottwell Reply #5, 13 years, 10 months ago

I use this for AJAX processing all the time. In fact, such a resource-with-snippet can have several functions for dealing with however many AJAX requests your site may make; you don't have to have a separate resource for each AJAX-based function.

Makes life much easier for a lazy programmer!

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24 Posts

BReynolds Reply #6, 13 years, 8 months ago

Susan or phacer, would either of you care to elaborate on that method? I have a modal window for an school alert that will fire on any page load since I'm not sure where the user will enter from but it will need to be seen (school related). However, I don't want it to appear again as the user browses the site. I'm looking for the most efficient way to check for a session.

103 Posts

phacer Reply #7, 13 years, 8 months ago

Hello BReynolds,

I use a snipped that checks for a session value when each page loads. So put the call in a chunk or template that you use in the page where you want to display an alert.

if ($_SESSION['yourSessionName'] != "sessionExist") {
    //code for alert.

    $_SESSION['yourSessionName'] = "sessionExist";
}

What this does is to check if a session with that variable name and value exists. If not an alert could be shown and the variable and value is set so you don't display the alert next time.

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André

24 Posts

BReynolds Reply #8, 13 years, 8 months ago

Thanks...I'm going to give this a shot. It looks like what I need but I was getting confused on the whole deal.

24 Posts

BReynolds Reply #9, 13 years, 8 months ago

@phacer - pardon my ignorance on this subject. I haven't worked in coding PHP in a while and I'm still learning MODx. I plugged in your suggested snippet and I it registers the session as expected. My question is how do I translate that in to my modal window firing or not? I am using the "If" plugin to do some conditional stuff on whether the alert modal is turned on by a user setting. If you could somehow tie you plugin into that eval I'd be all set. It is just beyond me on how to pass that type of info in MODx.

103 Posts

phacer Reply #10, 13 years, 8 months ago

Quote from: breynolds13 at Feb 13, 2013, 10:06 AM

@phacer - pardon my ignorance on this subject. I haven't worked in coding PHP in a while and I'm still learning MODx. I plugged in your suggested snippet and I it registers the session as expected. My question is how do I translate that in to my modal window firing or not? I am using the "If" plugin to do some conditional stuff on whether the alert modal is turned on by a user setting. If you could somehow tie you plugin into that eval I'd be all set. It is just beyond me on how to pass that type of info in MODx.

I'm pretty new to MODx myself, but I think the following should work. I haven't tried it myself but I've tried similar things which works. =)

Snippet:

<?php
if ($_SESSION['yourSessionName'] != "sessionExist") {
    $_SESSION['yourSessionName'] = "sessionExist";
    return "0";
} else {
    return "1";
}

in your if statement:

[[!If?
   &subject=`[[snippet]]`
   &operator=`EQ`
   &operand=`0`
   &then=`display alert`
   &else=`do nothing`
]]

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André

Answered Can't get session variable in modx.