How does PHP track created objects?

Question

This may be a bit of daft question, but I don't come from an OOP background and although I'm reading and learning as I go I'm still struggling with a few concepts.

Right now I'm working with PHP 5.3 and desiging a fairly simple login using a few different object classes: User which defines the user. Session which starts and maintains session data and if someone is logged in, and Database which does the queries.

So when my script is run, my session object is instantiated, etc... here's my problem though. When I move from one page to the next how is that object tracked? Or perhaps rather my question is how does PHP know the objects that relate to my login are mine and not someone else who logged into the site?

I know if I'm doing this in a non OOP way, I'd simply check the session cookie on each page and check my data that way, which is fine my brain can handle that. But, where and how is object data tracked.

EG: On each page I want to check if someone is logged in I reference $session->is_logged_in() etc is_logged_in checks the a private variable name is true or false. There's no checking of cookies at this point which means this object still exists, and, as it keeps asking for a stored variable the instance must persist to be useful... but how does PHP, the server, whatever tie that instance of that object to that user? If all of these objects float around on the server till I destroy them won't there be lots of memory used by objects?

As I said at the start it's probably a really basic, fundatmental question but I'm yet to have my eureka moment with this, I might go back to simpler PHP.

Answer 1

I find that sometimes, when I start to lose perspective as to whats really "happening", a quick trip to a page with phpinfo();,or just logging some ENV variables often clears things up, and puts me back on track…

Globals let you see exactly what "exists" in your environment, and allow you to take a mental restocking of what you're "working with", and how to best attack the challenge.. You'll find a wealth of information, and as to your specific "issues" there are such entries as…

$_SERVER["HTTP_COOKIE"]
$_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]
$_SERVER["argv | c"]
$include_path

etc…

also, it never hurts to read through your /etc/php.ini (wherever the case may be) for a little one-on-one-time with PHP's internals - to remind you "what its all about".

Answer 2

Session data (that is all the data in $_SESSION) is by default serialized and stored to file between requests. The data gets unserialized automatically when session_start() is called.

From the PHP manual on Session Handling (emphasis mine):

The session support allows you to register arbitrary numbers of variables to be preserved across requests. When a visitor accesses your site, PHP will check automatically (if session.auto_start is set to 1) or on your request (explicitly through session_start() or implicitly through session_register()) whether a specific session id has been sent with the request. If this is the case, the prior saved environment is recreated.

Nothing is persisted in memory between requests. PHP has a shared nothing architecture, meaning all objects are recreated on each request anew, unless you are using dedicated cache mechanisms.

Answer 3

So when my script is run, my session object is instantiated, etc... here's my problem though. When I move from one page to the next how is that object tracked? Or perhaps rather my question is how does PHP know the objects that relate to my login are mine and not someone else who logged into the site?

When you start a session, an id is generated. All the session data is associated with that id and it is given to the browser to store in a cookie. Subsequent requests include that id in the cookie, and PHP pulls the data out from where it has stored it.

If all of these objects float around on the server till I destroy them won't there be lots of memory used by objects?

The objects are serialized to files rather than being held in RAM, and are cleaned up with the session expires.