Looking for easy sessions using mod_perl

[Boysenberry Payne <bo...@humaniteque.com>]

I'm moving from PHP to mod_perl.  What a jump...

Normally in php it's as simple as:
session_start();

Then depending on your settings the session is kept in a cookie
or in the url.

I've looked into Apache::Session a bit, also Session (which is a 
wrapper for Apache:Session.)
I set it up locally using my mysql database, but I'm getting now where 
fast.

Here is the code:
my $cookie = $r->header_in( 'Cookie' );
$r->print( "Content Type: text/plain\n\n" );
$cookie =~ s/SESSION_ID=(\w+)/$1/;

my %session;
eval {
   tie %session, 'Apache::Session::MySQL', $cookie,
     { DataSource => 'dbi:mysql:boysie_habitat2',
       UserName => 'boysie_human',
       Password => "h\@b!T",
       LockDataSource => 'dbi:mysql:boysie_habitat2',
       LockUserName => 'boysie_human',
       LockPassword => "h\@b!T",
     };
};

if( $@ ) {
   $r->print( "Couldn't tie session: $@" );
}

I get the following error:
null: Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at 
/Users/WebRoot/perl/index.pl line 16.

I've tried printing out the cookie to see it and get the same error for 
anything I try to print it with.


It seems like it's being recorded ok in mysql.  I get the id fine, but 
the a_session column seems to be funky.
I'll copy an example below:
---------------------------------------


  e16d4be4a2f73b323184e8da1cef694d_session_id
---------------------------------------

You can't see it in the copy but there are a bunch of squares (I guess 
mac os x's new line characters.)

Any reason why this is so difficult to get working (besides my 
inexperience...)

Thanks,
Boysenberry

Re: Looking for easy sessions using mod_perl

[Jonathan Vanasco <jv...@mastersofbranding.com>]

Thats a whole lot easier than my approach.

On Feb 18, 2005, at 2:18 PM, Perrin Harkins wrote:
> It's that easy with mod_perl too if you use Apache::SessionManager.
> Save yourself some trouble and just use that.
>
> http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Apache-SessionManager&mode=dist

Re: Looking for easy sessions using mod_perl

[Perrin Harkins <pe...@elem.com>]

On Fri, 2005-02-18 at 12:43 -0600, Boysenberry Payne wrote:
> Normally in php it's as simple as:
> session_start();

It's that easy with mod_perl too if you use Apache::SessionManager.
Save yourself some trouble and just use that.

http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Apache-SessionManager&mode=dist

- Perrin

Re: Looking for easy sessions using mod_perl

[Jonathan Vanasco <jv...@mastersofbranding.com>]

the squares are because your cookie is serialized -- thats just the 
data structure

Below is a bunch of stuff that i routinely use in a class that is 
essentially a WebPageVisitor
(its not the complete stuff, so it might seem spotty)

maybe that will help you

---

our $CookieDefaults = 	
			{
				domain 			=> 	[
										'127.0.0.1',
									],
				path 			=> '/',
				expires 		=> '+365d',
				secure 			=> 0,
			};
my $cookiejar 	= Apache::Cookie::Jar->new( $this->{'ApacheRequestRec'} 
);
my @names 		= $cookiejar->cookies();

if ( $cookiejar->cookies('SESSION_ID') )
{
	$sessionID = $this->session__validate( 
$cookiejar->cookies('SESSION_ID')->value );
}

sub session__validate
{
	my  $this 				= $_[0];
	my  $sessionID 			= $_[1];
	# 	If not 32 chars long, kill it
   	if ( length($sessionID) != 32 ) { $sessionID = undef; }

   	# 	If its not in a valid file, kill it
	if ( defined($sessionID) )
	{
		my $DIR = 
"${$this->{'ApacheSessionOptions'}}->{Directory}/$sessionID";
	  	if ( -e  
"${$this->{'ApacheSessionOptions'}}->{Directory}/$sessionID" )	  	{
	  	}
	  	else
	  	{
	  		$sessionID = undef;
	  	}
	}
	return $sessionID;
}

sub session__load
{
	my  $this 				= $_[0];
	my  $sessionID 			= $_[1];
		$this->session__tie( $sessionID );
		
}

sub session__new
{
	my  $this 				= $_[0];
		$this->session__tie( '' );
		$this->cookie__session__set();
	return $this->{'sessionID'}
}

sub session__tie
{
	my  $this 				= $_[0];
	my  $sessionID 			= $_[1];

	tie %{$this->{'__SESSION'}} , 'Apache::Session::File', $sessionID, 
${$this->{'ApacheSessionOptions'}};
	$this->{'sessionID'} = $this->{'__SESSION'}{_session_id};
}

sub session__new__if_no_cookie
{
	my  $this 				= $_[0];
	my  $cookiejar 			= $_[1];
	if ( !$this->login_from_cookie( $cookiejar ) )
	{
		$this->cookie__autologin__kill();
	}
	$this->session__new();
}

sub cookie__session__set
{
	my  $this = $_[0];
	foreach $DOMAIN (@{${$this->{'CookieDefaults'}}->{'domain'}})
	{
		my	$session_cookie = Apache::Cookie->new	(
														$this->{'ApacheRequestRec'},
														-name 		=> 'SESSION_ID',
														-value 		=> $this->{'sessionID'},
														-domain 	=> $DOMAIN,
														-path 		=> ${$this->{'CookieDefaults'}}->{'path'},
														-expires 	=> ${$this->{'CookieDefaults'}}->{'expires'},
														-secure 	=> ${$this->{'CookieDefaults'}}->{'secure'},
													);
		#	Bake it!
		#	$session_cookie->bake();
		$this->{'ApacheRequestRec'}->err_headers_out->add('Set-Cookie' => 
$session_cookie);
	}
}