When a user is browsing through a website and
is surfing from one web page to another, sometimes the website needs to
remember the actions (e.g. choices) performed by the user. This is done
with cookies, or sessions.
Developing State-enabled Applications With PHP
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Developing State-enabled Applications With PHP
When
a user is browsing through a website and is surfing from one web page
to another, sometimes the website needs to remember the actions (e.g.
choices) performed by the user. For example, in a website that sells
DVDs, the user typically browses through a list of DVDs and selects
individual DVDs for check out at the end of the shopping session. The
website needs to remember which DVDs the user has selected because the
selected items needs to be presented again to the user when the user
checks out. In other words, the website needs to remember the State -
i.e. the selected items - of the user's browsing activities.
However,
HTTP is a Stateless protocol and is ill-equipped to handle States. A
standard HTML website basically provides information to the user and a
series of links that simply directs the user to other related web
pages. This Stateless nature of HTTP allows the website to be
replicated across many servers for load balancing purposes. A major
drawback is that while browsing from one page to another, the website
does not remember the State of the browsing session. This make
interactivity almost impossible.
In order to increase
interactivity, the developer can use the session handling features of
PHP to augment the features of HTTP in order to remember the State of
the browsing session. The are basically 2 ways PHP does this:
1. Using cookies
2. Using Sessions
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