Pass variables between two PHP pages without using a form or the URL of page

Question

I want to pass a couple of variables from one PHP page to another. I am not using a form. The variables are some messages that the target page will display if something goes wrong. How can I pass these variables to the other PHP page while keeping them invisible?

e.g. let's say that I have these two variables:

//Original page
$message1 = "A message";
$message2 = "Another message";

and I want to pass them from page1.php to page2.php. I don't want to pass them through the URL.

//I don't want
'page2.php?message='.$message1.'&message2='.$message2

Is there a way (maybe through $_POST?) to send the variables? If anyone is wondering why I want them to be invisible, I just don't want a big URL address with parameters like "&message=Problem while uploading your file. This is not a valid .zip file" and I don't have much time to change the redirections of my page to avoid this problem.

Answer 1

Sessions would be good choice for you. Take a look at these two examples from PHP Manual:

Code of page1.php

<?php
// page1.php

session_start();

echo 'Welcome to page #1';

$_SESSION['favcolor'] = 'green';
$_SESSION['animal']   = 'cat';
$_SESSION['time']     = time();

// Works if session cookie was accepted
echo '<br /><a href="page2.php">page 2</a>';

// Or pass along the session id, if needed
echo '<br /><a href="page2.php?' . SID . '">page 2</a>';
?>

Code of page2.php

<?php
// page2.php

session_start();

echo 'Welcome to page #2<br />';

echo $_SESSION['favcolor']; // green
echo $_SESSION['animal'];   // cat
echo date('Y m d H:i:s', $_SESSION['time']);

// You may want to use SID here, like we did in page1.php
echo '<br /><a href="page1.php">page 1</a>';
?>

To clear up things - SID is PHP's predefined constant which contains session name and its id. Example SID value:

PHPSESSID=d78d0851898450eb6aa1e6b1d2a484f1

Answer 2

Here are brief list:

• JQuery with JSON stuff. (http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_http.asp)

• $_SESSION - probably best way

• Custom cookie - will not *always* work.

• HTTP headers - some proxy can block it.

• database such MySQL, Postgres or something else such Redis or Memcached (e.g. similar to home-made session, "locked" by IP address)

• APC - similar to database, will not *always* work.

• HTTP_REFERRER

• URL hash parameter , e.g. http://domain.com/page.php#param - you will need some JavaScript to collect the hash. - gmail heavy use this.

Answer 3

<?php
session_start();

$message1 = "A message";
$message2 = "Another message";

$_SESSION['firstMessage'] = $message1;
$_SESSION['secondMessage'] = $message2; 
?>

Stores the sessions on page 1 then on page 2 do

<?php
session_start();

echo $_SESSION['firstMessage'];
echo $_SESSION['secondMessage'];
?>