Handle sessions

Session variables are used to store information for a particular period of time. They are used to carry information from one page to another in a website application. The data stored in the session variable can be accessed by PHP any number of times until the session expires.

In DotKernel, Zend_Session_Namespace() is used to create a session:

$session = new Zend_Session_Namespace($namespaceName);

As Zend Framework suggests, to avoid problems use Zend_Session_Namespace instance instead of $_SESSION.

For each module the session has a different namespace and different period of time. The session settings are declared in resource.xml:

<session>
	<frontend>
		<name>frontend</name>
		<rememberMeSeconds>864000</rememberMeSeconds>
	</frontend>
	<admin>
		<name>admin</name>
		<rememberMeSeconds>864000</rememberMeSeconds>
	</admin>		
</session>

It’s not a specific requirement to start a session in each module. For example the RSS module doesn’t need sessions – it is initialized with NULL.

Session is started in the bootstrap of the application – index.php – and stored using Zend_Registry:

Dot_Sessions::start($requestModule);
$session = Zend_Registry::get('session');

Wherever you need session, use the get method from Zend_Registry:

$session = Zend_Registry::get('session');

Excepting the usage for login, session is also used to store messages. displayMessage() is a View method used to display messages stored in session. This method uses 2 variables: type and text. The message type can be error, info and warning. The text variable is the message that will be displayed.

Whenever you need to display a message use this code to store it in the session:

$session->message['txt'] = $option->errorMessage->login;
$session->message['type'] = 'error';

As you may have noticed, the message text is taken from the dots/*.xml file.

Note:  There is no need to call the displayMessage method, as it is already called from the IndexController.php