php $_session variable not working with jQuery get()

Question

I have a PHP page, 'home.php', beginning like this:

require_once "data/secure/sessions.php";
session_start();

require "data/secure/dbconn.php";
require "data/get_data.php";
    ....
    <div id="store_items"> 
            <?php echo getStoreItems(); ?>
    </div>
    ...

The sessions.php file controls sessions and works as expected. Then in the HTML within the same page, there is a function called getStoreItems() that begins like this:

<?php
    header("Cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
    header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jun 1997 05:00:00 GMT");
    header("Pragma: no-cache");
    header("Last-Modified: ".gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s")." GMT");

    require "secure/dbconn.php";

    $current_store_brand = "";
    $current_store_name = "";
    $items_per_page = 15;
    $item_type = "Groceries";

    ...

    function getStoreItems()
    {
        $current_page = 1;
        $store_data = "";
        $pages_html = "";

    if($GLOBALS['current_store_brand'] != "")
    {
        $conn = mysqli_connect($GLOBALS['host'], $GLOBALS['user'], $GLOBALS['password'], $GLOBALS['database']) or die("Could not connect to database!".mysqli_connect_error());
        ...
        return "No Stores found for ".$_SESSION['location'].", ".$_SESSION['country'].".";
    }
?>

On the home.php page, I have a jQuery function that calls the function via a $.get() call to fetch more data from the file whenever the user clicks on a button. On the first run, when the user opens the page, the function runs perfectly, but when the jQuery function tries to get more data from the file 'get_data.php', the 'home.php' page returns the error

    "Undefined variable: _SESSION in data/get_data.php".

I have tried including the 'sessions.php' file in the external file but to no avail. I have also tried an if...else... statement to require the sessions.php file if the $_SESSION variable is not available. Why isn't the $_SESSION global array accessible when I call the external file using jQuery from 'home'php' page? Part of the the jQuery function is as shown below:

$('#store_items').on("click", ".item > .basket_data > button", function(event)
{
    event.preventDefault();

    ...

    $.get("data/get_data.php", {"basket":"", "username":$username, "item_name":$item_name, "item_qty":$item_qty, "store_brand":$store_brand, "store_name":$store_name}, function($data)
    {
        $('#shopping_cart').html($data);
    }).fail(function(error)
    {
        $('#shopping_cart').html("An error occurred: " + error.status).append(error.responseText);
    });

@Snowburn, thanks, your comment led me to the solution. i had to include the statements

    if(!isSet($_SESSION))
{
    require "secure/sessions.php";
    session_start();
}

within the function itself, not outside at the beginning of the get_data.php file, so it looks like this:

    function getStoreItems()
{
    if(!isSet($_SESSION))
    {
        require "secure/sessions.php";
        session_start();
    }
    ....

now it works, thanks!!!

Abhik Chakraborty · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 14:39:14Z

1

You need to add session_start(); in the data/get_data.php

In your home page you have

require_once "data/secure/sessions.php";
session_start();

require "data/secure/dbconn.php";
require "data/get_data.php";

So the file while loading gets the session data since the session_start is on the top

Now when u call the file by ajax it only executes data/get_data.php and this file does not know anything about session if session_start(); is not initiated.

I would suggest to to pass use the line as

$.get("data/get_data.php", 
{"basket":"", "username":$username, "item_name":$item_name, "item_qty":$item_qty, "store_brand":$store_brand, "store_name":$store_name},

to

$.get("data/get_data.php", 
{"basket":"","ajax_reg":"yes" ,"username":$username, "item_name":$item_name, "item_qty":$item_qty, "store_brand":$store_brand, "store_name":$store_name},

Then in the top of the file data/get_data.php add the following

if(isset($_GET["ajax_reg"]) && trim($_GET["ajax_reg"])== "yes"){
  require_once "data/secure/sessions.php";
  session_start();
}

So if you include this file on the home page then it will not re initiate the session_start but when you make a call via ajax get and if it finds the param "ajax_reg":"yes" then it will do the session start.

Finally, your files are in different folders so need to make sure that the session cookie save path is correct.

session_set_cookie_params(0, "/");
session_start();

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.session-set-cookie-params.php

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 14:39

Abhik Chakraborty

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8 Comments

Peter Over a year ago

i am saving my sessions in a database, that's why am including the 'sessions.php' file to control the writing and reading. I just tried what you said, but it doesn't work still. Believe it or not, two days ago it was functioning perfectly, then all of a sudden it stopped working. I have tried undoing anything i may have done to no avail.

Peter Over a year ago

yeah, it just began giving me the error. If i may ask, does the folder hierarchy matter when dealing with sessions? before, the get_data.php and the home.php files were in the same folder level, now the get_data.php file is a folder deeper, in a folder named 'data'

Abhik Chakraborty Over a year ago

yes this gives problem if you store the session data in disk. I have not tried with DB so may be I will need to check the manual to give u a concrete answer.

Abhik Chakraborty Over a year ago

you welcome and I will try the session saving in DB and subdir access to see if i get, as far as I know I tried once storing on REDIS and worked well for me. But the session was always included via config file and it was included on each file and it worked, I will certainly check this.

Snowburnt Over a year ago

@maxp check your database, is it still writing new sessions? Did something change there? Try changing your session object to output some data on reads and writes to make sure it's working

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