I want to make an e-commerce website and don't want to force users have an account to purchase items, they can just do it whenever they feel like it.
Can I use the sessions class in CodeIgniter to do this, with the ability to keep a users session (i.e. their shopping cart items) for an extended period of time (maybe 6 months or a year)? I read the user guide on CI about sessions and it says it gives you the option to set sessions to not expire by stating the session_expire_on_close variable to false in the config file, which I'm guessing keeps the session running even after the user closes the browser.
Whenever a user visits the site, or adds something to their basket, I can start the session. Then when they leave and decide to come back, I can validate their shopping cart info from the sessions table in my database and give it back to them.
I also wanted to know if I should store shopping cart items in the ci_sessions table given as an example in the user guide in the user_data column? Would that be sufficient?
Just want to know if I'm heading in the right direction. Thank you
Short answer: Yes, you're on the right path.
How I'd do it (some of this may be obvious):
Add the session library to config/autoload.php so it starts automatically.
Set up the 'Session Variables' section in config/config.php as needed - sess_expiration = some long time, sess_expire_on_close = false, use_database = true etc.
To keep it simple, only store product IDs in the session. Below is a basic add_to_cart function as an example:
public function add_to_cart($product_id) {
// Whenever a user adds an item to their cart, pull out any they already have in there
$cart_products = $this->session->userdata('cart_products');
// Add the new item
$cart_products[] = $product_id;
// And put it back into the session
$this->session->set_userdata('cart_products', $cart_products);
}
Use the product_ids from the session to pull out more details (e.g. product name) from your db and display them on screen.
Because CI keeps its own session_id this approach should automatically repopulate the session every time the user revisits your site, you shouldn't ever need to manually query the ci_sessions table or use standard PHP sessions.
The above isn't tested but hope it helps, shout if anything needs clarifying.
CodeIgniter utilizes its own sessions (see this) which do not interfere with PHP sessions.
Therefore you could use the regular PHP session
session_start();
that creates or reopen the existing session, which ID is stored in a cookie (usually PHPSESSID). Then use that session instead of CodeIgniter's one
$_SESSION['MyData'] = 12345;
Maybe you could check in your CodeIgniter configuration that the cookie names do not collide in config.php, sess_cookie_name.
