Processwire equivalent of PHP $_SESSION?

[ZionBludd]

Hi, I am currently in the process of converting over some friends code from pure PHP code to the PW API. However, I've come into a road block with $_SESSION.

Can someone explain to me the PW equivalent of PHP's $_SESSION. What I am doing below is preventing the page doing another post on a page refresh, using the Post/Redirect/Get method. 

<?php
  //var_dump($_POST);
  if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "GET"){
    //check for filter action
    if(isset($_SESSION["filter"])){
      $template = $_SESSION["filter"]; //this is your templates
      //things should just  work.
      $_SESSION["filter"] = null;
    }
    else{
      if ($page->id == "1019") {
        $template = "product_maker=NULL";
        $template = "template=products, product_type=Starter Kits,sort=name";
        // Defaults for fields
        $_SESSION["product_type"] = $_SESSION["product_maker"]  = $_SESSION["limit"] = null;
       }
    }

    if(isset($_SESSION["product_type"])){
      $product_type =  $_SESSION["product_type"] ;
    }
    if(isset($_SESSION["product_maker"])){
      $product_maker =  $_SESSION["product_maker"] ;
    }
    if(isset($_SESSION["has_images"])){
      $has_images =  $_SESSION["has_images"] ;
    }
    if(isset($_SESSION["limit"])){
      $limit =  $_SESSION["limit"] ;
    }
    var_dump($_SESSION["product_type"]);
  }
  else if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST"){

    if ($input->post->$sanitzer->product_type || $input->post->has_images || ($input->post->$sanitzer->product_maker || ($input->post->limit)))  {
        $_SESSION["product_type"] = $product_type = $input->post->product_type;
        $_SESSION["product_maker"] = $product_maker = $input->post->product_maker;
        $_SESSION["has_images"] = $has_images = $input->post->has_images;
        $_SESSION["limit"] =$limit = $input->post->limit;
        $template = "template=products, has_images=$has_images, product_maker=$product_maker, limit=$limit, product_type=$product_type";

$template;
$_SESSION["filter"] = $template;

      }
    elseif ($input->post->has_images) {
     $template = "template=products";
    }
    //else {
    //    $product_type = $input->post->product_type;
    //}
    $_SESSION["filter"] = $template ;


    header("Location: ".$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
    exit();
//redurect to self.

  }
?>

 

[bernhard]

42 minutes ago, mattcohen said:

Can someone explain to me the PW equivalent of PHP's $_SESSION

Maybe the docs can explain that? ? https://www.google.com/search?q=site:processwire.com/api/ref+session

[thetuningspoon]

You should be fine using the native $_SESSION, although PW also provides the $session api variable if you want to use it (store vars using $session->myVar = $myValue and retrieve with $session->myVar). I am suspicious that something else is causing your problem.

[dragan]

What exactly is not working, and where? Install Tracy Debugger - it might help to narrow down what's going wrong.

[gRegor]

PW's `$session` stores data in `$_SESSION` but it's "namespaced" in the array. E.g. `$session->value` != `$_SESSION['value']`

I'd recommend using the PW `$session` if possible instead of mixing and matching with `$_SESSION`.

In PW3 you can also use `$input->requestMethod()` for request method checks.

https://processwire.com/api/ref/session/
https://processwire.com/api/ref/input/

[ZionBludd]

Thanks so much for all of your responses. Such an amazing community. 

I've done a-lot of reading, and debugging with TracyDebugger and this what what I've come up with

<?php
$limit = null;
$sort = null;
$template = null;
$kit_type = $session->get('search_type');

if ($page->path == "/kits/starter-kits/") {
  if ($input->post->product_brand_name || $input->post->limit || $input->post->product_type || $input->post->product_port_location) {
    $session->set ('template', 'products');
    $session->set ('limit', $input->post->limit);
    $session->set ('product_type', $input->post->product_type);
    $session->set ('product_brand_name', $input->post->product_brand_name);
    $session->set ('port_location', $input->post->product_port_location);
    // Build selector
    $selector = "template=$session->template, product_brand_name=$session->product_brand_name, product_port_location=$session->port_location,limit=$session->limit, product_type=$session->product_type";
    var_dump ($selector);

  } else {
    $session->set ($product_type , 'Starter Kits');
    $selector = "template=products, sort=name, product_type=$session->product_type";
    echo "<pre style='padding:10pt'>";
    echo "Default Starter Kits landing settings";
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump ($selector);
    echo "</pre>";


  }
} elseif ($page->path == "/kits/advanced-kits/") {
  if ($input->post->product_maker || $input->post->limit || $input->post->product_type || $input->post->product_port_location) {
    $session->set ('template', 'products');
    $session->set ('product_maker', $input->post->product_maker);
    $session->set ('limit', $input->post->limit);
    $session->set ('product_type', $input->post->product_type);
    $session->set ('port_location', $input->post->product_port_location);
    // Build selector
    $selector = "template=$session->template, product_port_location=$session->port_location, product_maker=$session->product_maker, limit=$session->limit, product_type=$session->product_type";
    var_dump ($selector);

  } else {
    $session->set ('product_type' , 'Advanced Kits');
    $session->set ('product_maker' , '');

    $selector = "template=products,sort=price, product_type=Advanced Kits";
    echo "<pre style='padding:10pt'>";
    echo "Default Advanced Kits landing settings";
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump ($selector);
    echo "</pre>";


}

} elseif ($page->path == "/kits/advanced-kits/") {
    if ($input->post->product_maker || $input->post->limit || $input->post->product_type || $input->post->product_port_location) {
      $session->set ('template', 'products');
      $session->set ('product_maker', $input->post->product_maker);
      $session->set ('limit', $input->post->limit);
      $session->set ('product_type', $input->post->product_type);
      $session->set ('port_location', $input->post->product_port_location);
      // Build selector
      $selector = "template=$session->template, product_port_location=$session->port_location, product_maker=$session->product_maker, limit=$session->limit, product_type=$session->product_type";
      var_dump ($selector);

    } else {
      $session->set ('product_type' , 'Advanced Kits');
      $session->set ('product_maker' , '');
      $session->set ('limit', '10');
      $selector = "template=products,sort=price, limit=$session->limit, product_type=Advanced Kits";
        if ($user->isSuperuser()){
          echo "<pre style='padding:10pt'>";
          echo "Default Advanced Kit landing settings";
          echo "<br>";
          var_dump ($selector);
          echo "</pre>";
        }

  }

}
elseif ($page->path == "/kits/intermediate-kits/") {
    if ($input->post->product_maker || $input->post->limit || $input->post->product_type || $input->post->product_port_location) {
      $session->set ('template', 'products');
      $session->set ('product_maker', $input->post->product_maker);
      $session->set ('limit', $input->post->limit);
      $session->set ('product_type', $input->post->product_type);
      $session->set ('port_location', $input->post->product_port_location);


      // Build selector
      $selector = "template=$session->template, product_port_location=$session->port_location, product_maker=$session->product_maker, limit=$session->limit, product_type=$session->product_type";
      var_dump ($selector);

    } else {
      $session->set ('product_type' , 'Intermediate Kits');
      $session->set ('product_maker' , '');
      $session->set ('limit', '10');
      $selector = "template=products,sort=price, limit=$session->limit, product_type=Intermediate Kits";
        if ($user->isSuperuser()){
          echo "<pre style='padding:10pt'>";
          echo "Default Intermediate Kit landing settings";
          echo "<br>";
          var_dump ($selector);
          echo "</pre>";
        }

  }

}

?>

However, haven't been able to implement post resubmission errors (Post Get Redirect method)

And I'm having trouble with removing the product_brand_name selector when it's not selected in my form.

[gRegor]

For redirection (PRG), you can use http://processwire.com/api/ref/session/redirect/

Since you're using POST values in your selectors, you should sanitize them first.

To customize the selector based on which fields are submitted in the POST, I would do something like this:

$temp = [];

if ( $input->post->product_brand_name ) {
	$temp[] = 'product_brand_name=' . $sanitizer->selectorValue($input->post->product_brand_name);
}

if ( $input->post->product_type ) {
	$temp[] = 'product_type=' . $sanitizer->selectorValue($input->post->product_type);
}

// ... and so on

$selector = implode(',', $temp);

 

[Zeka]

Also consider to use selector as an regular array https://processwire.com/blog/posts/processwire-3.0.13-selector-upgrades-and-new-form-builder-version/#new-selectors-as-regular-arrays

 

[bernhard]

@mattcohen not sure what you are trying to do exactly but you have lots of if/else and duplicates that makes the code quite hard to read.

Maybe somethink like this could clean things up a little?

$path = '/foo';

$selector['foo'] = 1;
$selector['bar'] = 2;
$selector['type'] = $sanitizer->text($input->post->type);
$selector['limit'] = 100;
switch($path) {
    case '/foo':
        unset($selector['bar']);
        $selector['limit'] = 10;
        break;
    case '/bar':
        unset($selector['foo']);
        $selector['limit'] = 20;
        break;
}
d($selector, 'selector array');

$session->tmp = json_encode($selector);
d($session->tmp, 'session as string');
d(json_decode($session->tmp), 'session as object');

As you can see I would highly recommend to use d() = dump() or bd() = bardump() in tracy. It's a lot more readable than var_dump() and a lot less effort. See the tracy docs for all the options (maxLength etc).

 

 

[gRegor]

8 hours ago, Zeka said:

Also consider to use selector as an regular array https://processwire.com/blog/posts/processwire-3.0.13-selector-upgrades-and-new-form-builder-version/#new-selectors-as-regular-arrays

 

Nice! I'd not seen this feature.