Transfer variables between PHP pages

Question

I want to get user input in one page, store that in a php variable and use it in another php page. I have tried using 'sessions' but it doesn't seem to be working. Is there another safe alternative? This information is likely to be usernames and passwords.

Answer 1

Try changing your session code as this is the best way to do this.

For example:

index.php

<?php
session_start();

if (isset($_POST['username'], $_POST['password']) {
    $_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['username'];
    $_SESSION['password'] = $_POST['password'];
    echo '<a href="nextpage.php">Click to continue.</a>';
} else {
    // form
}
?>

nextpage.php

<?php
session_start();

if (isset($_SESSION['username'])) {
    echo $_SESSION['username'];
} else {
    header('Location: index.php');
}
?>

However I'd probably store something safer like a userid in a session rather than the user's login credentials.

Answer 2

I Agree with carson, sessions should work for this. Make sure you are calling session_start() before anything else on any page you want to use the session variables.

Also, I would not store password info directly, rather use some kind of authentication token mechanism. IMHO, it is not intrinsically unsafe to store password data in a session, but if there is no need to do so, you should probably try to avoid it.