Codeigniter sessions issue - codeigniter

Question

I am using codeigniter. I have a weird problem with the sessions. I set the session when the user logs in and redirects him to a new page. I observe that the sessions are set sometimes and sometimes they aren't set. I have tried using codeigniter sessions & native sessions with sess_use_database variable TRUE and FALSE. I have no idea of what's going on.
This is how the config file looks like:
$config['sess_expiration'] = 7200;
$config['sess_expire_on_close'] = FALSE;
$config['sess_encrypt_cookie'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_use_database'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_table_name'] = 'ci_sessions';
$config['sess_match_ip'] = FALSE;
$config['sess_match_useragent'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_time_to_update'] = 7200;

Answer 1

When session data is available in a database, every time a valid session is found in the user's cookie, a database query is performed to match it. If the session ID does not match, the session is destroyed. Session IDs can never be updated, they can only be generated when a new session is created.
In order to store sessions, you must first create a database table for this purpose.
Create it in your DB:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `ci_sessions` (
session_id varchar(40) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
ip_address varchar(16) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
user_agent varchar(120) NOT NULL,
last_activity int(10) unsigned DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL,
user_data text NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (session_id),
KEY `last_activity_idx` (`last_activity`)
);
When, go at config and and change:
$config['sess_use_database'] = TRUE;
I prefer to save the session in database because it is more secure and works without problem.

Answer 2

Where is your sess_cookie setting? I dont see it there?
$config['sess_cookie_name'] = 'cookiename';
$config['sess_expiration'] = 7200;
$config['sess_expire_on_close'] = FALSE;
$config['sess_encrypt_cookie'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_use_database'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_table_name'] = 'ci_sessions';
$config['sess_match_ip'] = FALSE;
$config['sess_match_useragent'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_time_to_update'] = 7200;
Make sure whatever cookie name you pick does NOT have an underscore. i.e:
$config['sess_cookie_name'] = 'mycookie'; // good
$config['sess_cookie_name'] = 'my_cookie'; // bad

Answer 3

Had the same issue and what I found it having
$config['sess_encrypt_cookie'] = TRUE;
$config['sess_use_database'] = TRUE;
Will insert 2 records in the session table, the first record with the data and the second record with nothing hence the session data not accessible. When you change
$config['sess_encrypt_cookie'] = FALSE;
to false it will only insert one record into the session table with all the data and all will be right with the world :)

Answer 4

I think that it's just not getting updated as supposed and it creates a new one on every page request. (common Codeigniter's setting issue)
here's my suggestions:
double check your Application/Config/config.php file to ensure that the part of session domain looks like that if you host the site on the main directory:
$config['cookie_prefix'] = "";
$config['cookie_domain'] = "yourdomain.com";
$config['cookie_path'] = "var/sessions/";
$config['cookie_secure'] = FALSE;
and like that if you host the site on a sub-directory:
$config['cookie_prefix'] = "";
$config['cookie_domain'] = "yourdomain.com";
$config['cookie_path'] = "siteSubDirectory/var/sessions/";
$config['cookie_secure'] = FALSE;
and also make sure that the 2 directories are writable by fixing their permissions to 755 or so, and I strongly recommend that you enable database session, it's more secure and will help you find out the real problem by checking the session table. good luck :)

Answer 5

try $config['sess_match_useragent'] = FALSE;
i'm experiencing the same issue with sessions and redirects and i've hacked my cms to find out what's causing this. setting that in config.php worked for me.