Store Object in PHP Session

Question

In PHP, is it considered best practice to store the complete object as a session variable?

From my experience, sometimes it works and sometime not. Is there any specific reason for it?

Example:

session_start();
$object = new sample_object();
$_SESSION['sample'] = $object;

Answer 1

Use serialize() in PHP before store your object, and call unserialize() when retrieve your object from session.

store object

session_start();
$object = new sample_object();
$_SESSION['sample'] = serialize($object);

retrieve object

session_start();
$object = unserialize($_SESSION['sample']);