PHP Not saving $_SESSSION variable after login

Question

First time here. Let's hope this works!

I'm new to PHP and trying to create a site where users have their own page with content they can edit. I got the login system to halfway work. It recognizes usernames and passwords correctly, but it does not seem to be storing the $_SESSION variable. At first I thought it was because I was trying to make the username (itself a variable) the $_SESSION variable, but even when I set it to something absolute, my code to check to see if the user is logged in redirects them to the "you are not logged in" page. Here is my verification php code:

<?php

$host="xxxx.ipagemysql.com";
$username="xxxxx";
$password="xxxxxx";
$db_name="farmers";
$tbl_name="users";

mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect");
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

$farmeruser=$_POST['farmeruser'];
$farmerpw=$_POST['farmerpw'];

$sql="SELECT * FROM ".$tbl_name." WHERE farmeruser='".$farmeruser."' and farmerpw='".$farmerpw."';";

$result=mysql_query($sql);

$count=mysql_num_rows($result);

if($count==1){

session_start();
$_SESSION['member'] = "affirmative";
header("location:succesful_login.php");
}
else {
echo "Wrong Username or Password";
}
?>

And here is my page that is never recognizing that the user is logged in:

<?php
session_start();
if($_SESSION['member'] == "affirmative")
{
echo
"Welcome!";
}
else {
header('Location: http://www.leukosweb.com/user_not_recognized.php');
}
?>

Any Ideas why this is not working?

PS. I would like to change "affirmative" to the user's login name. If you want to help me set the $_SESSION 'member' variable using a variable in the login varification page, that would also be awesome!

Please, don't use mysql_* functions in new code. They are no longer maintained and the deprecation process has begun, see the red box. Learn about prepared statements instead, and use PDO or MySQLi; this article will help you decide which. If you choose PDO, here is a good tutorial. — Geek Num 88
Try to test the results of session_start() first. Session may be unavailable for some reason. — shinkou
Also, always exit; immediately after issuing a Location header — Phil
Thanks to both of you for the tips. I didn't realize I was using deprecated functions. That's actually the second one I have used. I found out before that I was a different deprecated function while looking to an answer to this question on the forums earlier. — Eric Sparks ii
What OS is this running on and what is your session.save_path in php.ini? — Phil

Geek Num 88 Geek Num 88 · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-16T02:29:14

session_start() needs to add a cookie to the user's browser and if you have any space before the first <?php that will be output to the browser and will screw up setting the cookie. I would move the session_start() to the 2nd line

<?php
session_start();

and make sure there is no extra space you can check your browsers cookies and see if you have a cookie PHP_SESSION or similar, and if you

print session_start();

it should return true if the session was able to be created - if not you may have a problem with the PHP config and creating sessions.

also this needs to be corrected

header("location:succesful_login.php");

should be

header("Location: succesful_login.php");

PHP Not saving $_SESSSION variable after login

5 Answers