[development] Add data to Drupal session

[Sascha Grossenbacher]

Short answer: you can't.

Even if you are able to serialize your class, I'm sure the class
contains resources
(http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.resource.php) and these
cannot be serialized nor stored in $_SESSION. Some resources can be
persistent but I think that's only possible with PHP extensions aka C
code.

I'm sure there are other possible solutions, including a running
process/service on the server to which either your module can talk.

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Salvatore De Paolis <iwkse at gmx.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to this mailing list, I hope is the right place to ask for such
> questions.
> I'm writing a module for drupal which implements a jabber client and hooks in
> the appbar module.
> The issue i'm having now is regarding the data used for jabber communication.
> I'm using a jabber class and I need to store this object somewhere so that the
> _init code is just executed one time.
> I thought about sessions and I found a couple of ways, both don't works
> properly for me.
>
> First is using the global $user:
>
> function jwclient_jabberclass_init() {
>   global $user;
>   if (!isset($user->jabclient) && $user->uid) {
>       require_once('jabber.php');
>       ...
>       $jab = New Jabber($debug);
>       $jabclient = New JabberClient($jab);
>       $jabclient->jabber_client_set_user($user);
>       ...
>       user_save($user, array('jabclient' => $jabclient));
>   }
> }
> function jwclient_init() {
>  jwclient_jabberclass_init();
>  ...
> }
> function theme_jwclient_chat () {
>  global $user;
>  return $user->jabclient->status;
> }
>
> This solution gives me an errors of __PHP_Incomplete_Class Object.
> Googling in understood that a proper way to save classes in session is to
> fistly define the class and than call session_start. I don't see ways to
> achieve this since the class I'm using is defined in a module and the
> drupal session is already initiated.
> A workaround i found on drupal.org is by using serialize/unserialize but it
> doesn't work around for this case.
> I changed the code in this way:
>
> function jwclient_jabberclass_init() {
>   global $user;
>   if (!isset($user->jabclient) && $user->uid) {
>       require_once('jabber.php');
>       ...
>       $jab = New Jabber($debug);
>       $jabclient = New JabberClient($jab);
>       $jabclient->jabber_client_set_user($user);
>       ...
>       $jabclient = serialize($jabclient);
>       user_save($user, array('jabclient' => $jabclient));
>   }
> }
> function jwclient_init() {
>  jwclient_jabberclass_init();
>  ...
> }
> function theme_jwclient_chat () {
>  global $user;
>  $jabclient = $user->jabclient;
>  $jabclient = unserialize($jabclient);
>  return $user->jabclient->status;
> }
> The result is: warning: unserialize() expects parameter 1 to be string, object
> given
>
> After this, i give away $user and tried with $_SESSION
>
> function jwclient_jabberclass_init() {
>   global $user;
>   if (is_null($_SESSION['jabclient']) && $user->uid) {
>       require_once('jabber.php');
>       ...
>       $jab = New Jabber($debug);
>       $jabclient = New JabberClient($jab);
>       $jabclient->jabber_client_set_user($user);
>       ...
>       $_SESSION['jabclient'] = serialize($jabclient);
>   }
> }
> function jwclient_init() {
>  jwclient_jabberclass_init();
>  ...
> }
> function theme_jwclient_chat () {
>  $jabclient = unserialize($_SESSION['jabclient']);
>  return $jabclient->status;
> }
> This attempt works on the first call. On the second call I get again the error
> about __PHP_Incomplete_Class Object.
>
> I'm out of clue now.
> Anyone know how to manage the case of storing objects in session with drupal?
>
> Thanks,
> Salvatore
>