What is session? What are the ways to do session tracking? How session tracking is done in PHP

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written 8.3 years ago by

teamques10 ★ 68k

When a user logs in to a application, performs some activity and close the application, this entire scenario is called as session.
A web server needs to track all the activities of users. It needs to store required information about the user. This whole process is called as session tracking.
There exists a session array which often stores the unique session ID for the session.
PHP keep tracks of session by using a function called session_start().
When session_start() function is invoked , session ID is created and recorded.

Following is a PHP code:

<?php
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION[‘PGVISIT’]))
    {
    $_SESSION[‘PGVISIT’])=$_SESSION[‘PGVISIT’])+1;
    echo “You are visiting this page for:”$_SESSION [‘PGVISIT’])” times”;
}
else
{
echo “You are visiting this page for the first time”;
}
?>

Another way to store information is using Cookies. Cookies is a small file that server embeds in a user’s machine.
Cookies are used to identify users. It consists of a name and textual value. It can be created by some software system on the server.
In every HTTP communication between browser and server, a header is included.
The header part contains the information stored in cookies, about the message. -- In PHP, a function setcookie() can be used to create cookie.
```
<?php
$Cookie_period=time()+60*60*24*30;
        setcookie(“Myname”,”Alia”,$Cookie_period);
?>
```

An information from the cookie can be retrieved in a following way:

 <?php
 if(isset($_COOKIE[“Myname”])
     echo “Welcome” .$_COOKIE[“Myname”].”….!!”;?>

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