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Is there a way in PHP to get a list of all sessions (and the variables within each) on the server?
Basically, we have a maintenance function which needs to know which users are currently logged into the site. We already store data for each user in a session variable, but I am hoping that I can loop through each of these sessions and pluck out the data I need.
MY PHP is very limited (I am a .Net developer ussually) but if anyone knows if this is even possible (and how to do it) I'd be very grateful. I googled this, and the results I found tended to inidcate that it WASN'T possible, but I find this very hard to accept.
Still, If you can't you can't but I thought my buddies on StackOverflow could give me a definitive answer!
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1000+ sessions can still be perfectly handled by standard PHP file based sessions. If you notice that is getting a problem, you can exchange the session backend easily. There are pluggable session handlers for memcached or other memory or database based storage systems.
The session functions keep track of users by issuing them cookies with a randomly generated session IDs. If PHP detects that a user doesn't accept the session ID cookie, it automatically adds the session ID to URLs and forms.
It must be on every page you intend to use. The variables contained in the session—such as username and favorite color—are set with $_SESSION, a global variable. In this example, the session_start function is positioned after a non-printing comment but before any HTML.
Start a PHP Session. A session is started with the session_start() function. Session variables are set with the PHP global variable: $_SESSION. Now, let's create a new page called "demo_session1.php". In this page, we start a new PHP session and set some session variables:
So; Session variables hold information about one single user, and are available to all pages in one application. Tip: If you need a permanent storage, you may want to store the data in a database. A session is started with the session_start () function. Session variables are set with the PHP global variable: $_SESSION.
The foreach loop - Loops through a block of code for each element in an array. The PHP foreach Loop The foreach loop works only on arrays, and is used to loop through each key/value pair in an array.
Destroy a PHP Session To remove all global session variables and destroy the session, use session_unset () and session_destroy ():
PHP stores session data for each user in a temporary folder on the server. This folder is defined in the php.ini configuration file under the variable session.save_path. Locate this value from within your php.ini file, or alternatively, create a php file with:
<?php echo "Session Save Path: " . ini_get( 'session.save_path');?> as it's contents, and open the file in your browser.
Once you find the save path for the session data, open up that folder and you'll notice a fairly simple structure. All sessions are stored in the format: sess_$SESSIONID .
Session data is serialized before being stored on disk. As such, objects stored in the session file would have to be deserialized before being usable. However, if you're using plain text, which is stored as-is, to store your session data (ex. $_SESSION['userid'] = 1234) to store information about your users, it should be easy enough to parse out the data you're looking for from within the files.
One more thing ... I haven't looked into it, but it appears as though the session ID that appears in the filename corresponds directly to, for instance, the name of the PHPSESSID cookie stored on the user's computer. So, with this in mind, it may be possible to loop through the files within the temporary session directory, acquire all the $SESSIONID values, set the current session ID using session_id($SESSIONID), start a session with session_start() and access the data you need through PHP without having to parse the contents files themselves. Can anyone confirm whether or not this would be possible?
Edit: Adjusted post to match Itay's comment.
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