Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10. Sessions

A fundamental characteristic of the Web is the stateless interaction between browsers and web servers. As discussed in Chapter 1, HTTP is a stateless protocol. Each HTTP request sent to a web server is independent of any other request. The stateless nature of HTTP allows users to browse the Web by following hypertext links and visiting pages in any order. HTTP also allows applications to distribute or even replicate content across multiple servers to balance the load generated by a high number of requests.

This stateless nature suits applications that allow users to browse or search collections of documents. However, applications that require complex user interaction can't be implemented as a series of unrelated, stateless web pages. An often-cited example is a shopping cart in which items are added to the cart while searching or browsing an on-line store. The state of the shopping cart (the selected items) needs to be stored somewhere to be displayed when the user visits the order page.

Stateful web database applications can be built using sessions, and session management is the topic of this chapter. In this chapter, we:

• Discuss how sessions are managed in the stateless environment of the Web and introduce the three characteristics of server-side session management

• Show you how to use the PHP session management library, and discuss design strategies for session-based applications

• Use PHP session management to improve the phonebook entry form

• Provide a brief list ...