How do I save session data for the anonymous users?

Question

In my last project for Drupal 6, I did save the data using code similar to the following one:

$_SESSION['xxx'] = serialize($data);

In Drupal 7, it doesn't work.

How should I save the session data for the anonymous users, in Drupal 7?

Answer 1

It because drupal save session with key, this mean you should do something like

  $_SESSION['yourkey']['xxx'] = serialize($data);

You can try this.

function lists_session($key, $value = NULL) {
  global $user;

  static $storage;

  // If the user is anonymous, force a session start.
  if(!user->uid) {
    drupal_session_start();
  }

  if ($value) {
    $storage[$key] = $value;
    $_SESSION['lists'][$key] = $value;   // I use 'lists' in case some other module uses 'type' in $_SESSION
  }
  else if (empty($storage[$key]) && isset($_SESSION['lists'][$key])) {
    $storage[$key] = $_SESSION['lists'][$key];
  }
  return $storage[$key];
}

So, to save a variable in Session:

lists_session("xxx", serialize($data));

And to retrieve the value, just use:

$myVar = lists_session("xxx");

and aslo as MOLOT mentions sometimes session not stareted for anonymous users then you should drupal_session_start() manually.

Answer 2

According to the docs, that is all you should need to do.

Which means that there is either a bug, or your pages are being cached for anon users so the session data is not being read. I would check your caching settings in the first instance.

Answer 3

Drupal 7 sometimes does not automatically start sessions for anonymous users. To use sessions for them, you may need to force session started with drupal_session_start to be able to use $_SESSION.

Answer 4

After you saving data by following:

$_SESSION['xxx'] = serialize($data);

Need another function:

drupal_session_start();

Due to the Session table needs a record with id=0, you could manually insert a record with id=0.

Answer 5

create a user with uid=0 in users table because drupal always uses that uid for anonymous users