How to set_userdata after session_destroy in codeginiter? - codeigniter

Question

For some reasons I need to destroy all sessions in a controller in my codeigniter and set new one immediately after that. but as you can see in the following example, seems it is not working in Codeigniter version 3.1.9 or my usage is in wrong way.
I have this controller in my Codeigniter:
<?php
class Test extends CI_Controller {
public function index()
{
$this->load->library('session');
$this->session->sess_destroy();
$session_data = array (
'key_1' => 'value_1',
'key_2' => 'value_2',
'key_3' => 3
);
$this->session->set_userdata($session_data);
$this->session->set_userdata('key_4', 4);
print_r($_SESSION);
}
public function next()
{
$this->load->library('session');
print_r($this->session->all_userdata());
}
}
When I open MYDOMAIN.COM/test, the output is like this:
Array ( [__ci_last_regenerate] => 1545508348 [key_1] => value_1 [key_2] => value_2 [key_3] => 3 [key_4] => 4 )
but immediately after that, if I open MYDOMAIN.COM/test/next, the output is empty like this:
Array ( [__ci_last_regenerate] => 1545509049 )
In the config.php the session configuration is like bellow (please note the ci_sessions is a writable folder):
$config['sess_driver'] = 'files';
$config['sess_cookie_name'] = 'ci_session';
$config['sess_expiration'] = 60*60*1;
$config['sess_save_path'] = APPPATH . 'ci_sessions/';
$config['sess_match_ip'] = FALSE;
$config['sess_time_to_update'] = 300;
$config['sess_regenerate_destroy'] = FALSE;
Could you please guide me what is wrong?

Answer 1

Consider for a moment what you are doing.
First you just start the session by calling $this->load->library('session').
Then you immediately stop the session with $this->session->sess_destroy();.
There are multiple problems with what you are trying. Read this to learn more.
You would be much better off simply clearing $_SESSION and then adding the new data to it.
public function index()
{
$this->load->library('session');
// if you want a new session id uncomment the next line, needs to happen before you clear $_SESSION
//session_regenerate_id();
$_SESSION = array();
// if you uncommented earlier then uncomment the next too
//$_SESSION['__ci_last_regenerate'] = time();
$session_data = array (
'key_1' => 'value_1',
'key_2' => 'value_2',
'key_3' => 3
);
$this->session->set_userdata($session_data);
$this->session->set_userdata('key_4', 4);
print_r($_SESSION);
}
With CodeIgniter > v3.0.0 you can set $_SESSION directly. The documentation actually recommends doing it that way. With that in mind the line
$this->session->set_userdata('key_4', 4);
could (should) be written
$_SESSION['key_4'] = 4;
set_userdata() is useful for quickly setting a lot of $_SESSION key/values quickly though.
That said, the following seems less abstract than the earlier code to me. If nothing else, it uses a teeny-tiny bit less memory and avoids a function call.
$_SESSION = array();
$_SESSION['key_1'] = 'value_1';
$_SESSION['key_2'] = 'value_2';
$_SESSION['key_3'] = 'value_3';
$_SESSION['key_4'] = 'value_4';
$_SESSION['__ci_last_regenerate'] = time();
Sorry, I sometimes cannot stop myself from going into lecture mode.

Answer 2

Use:
$this->session->sess_regenerate(true);
Instead of:
$this->session->sess_destroy();