Zend Framework Session usage and examples

Session handling was one of the boring topic in plan php atleast for me, but in Zend Framework it really shines. If you like to work with Object oriented programming, you will definitely become fan of it.
In this article I’m going to discuss some useful techniques of using Zend Framework Session and Session namespace.
Keep in mind that Both Zend_Session and Zend_Session_Namespace extends abstract class Zend_Session_Abstract. So both inherit methods avaliable in Zend_Session_Abstract automatically.
If you want to go under the hood, you can open Zend/Session/Abstract.php and have a look at the functions available.
Instead of delve into the function available, I’d rather discuss some useful techniques.
Although you can create Zend_Session class object, however I would recommend Zend_Session_Namespace object instead. You can instantiate session as

$sess = new Zend_Session_Namespace(’MyNamespace’);

Here the argument is optional, however it is better to pass it. If don’t pass, Zend Session Namespace will assign its name a string “default”.
To store values, you will need to do the following.

$sess->username = ‘you_name’;

Later in your code, you will need to do the following to retrieve value from the session.

    $session = new Zend_Session_Namespace(’MyNamespace’);

    $userName = $sess->username;

This was a simple example of how to assign values to session and later retrieve. Now I’m going to discuss some of its important method.
To check whether or not session exist, write the following.

    If (Zend_Session::sessionExist()) {

    // do something.

    }

sessionExist() is static method available in Zend_Session.

Another very important method is rememberMe() available in Zend_Session. This is used to make your session persistent.
Its syntax is

Zend_Session::rememberMe(60*60*24*7);

The number passed as an argument specify for how long the session will be available. What I have done means that session will be there for a week.
To destroy this you will need to call the following function on the logout of your application.

Zend_Session::forgetMe();

Another method
destroy(bool,bool), take two Boolean arguments. This destroy the entire persistent data. Keep in mind that Zend_Session_Namespace data will not be destroyed. You can retrieve that data even after you call

Zend_Session::destroy(false);

To completely logout you will need to do the following

Zend_Session::destroy(true);

We now passed true instead of false.
The above methods were anyhow related to Zend_Session class. To check the individual namespaces you can use the following function

Zend_Session::namespaceIsset(’MyNamespace’);

This will check whether the specified namespace has been set.
To unset the particular namespace, you will need to write the following.

Zend_Session:: namespaceUnset(’MyNamespace’);