Sessions help

[K4ELO]

Hi all, I am new to php but have experience with C++, Java, sql, etc.
Been digging into the php books and it looks pretty cool.

PHPStorm, mysql, and webplus all installed on Win 7/64 and working fine.

My question is about sessions. I am developing a website that will have multiple users logged in at the same time and need to use an instant messenger on the site.

So far I have not been able to determine from my reference books how I can differentiate users when they want to send an IM. I would like to know who is sending an IM so I can prefix their message with their login name. I know I can store the users logged in into the $_SESSION array but how to know who is sending the message?

Thanks for any help.

[Redscouse]

Let’s say in your login script you fetch details from the database and set up some sessions.
If, for example you have a variable like so -
Note: $username is set from information pulled from the database.
[php]$_SESSION[‘username’] = $row[‘username’];[/php]

Then if you and I login in on our respective machines this variable will hold my username within my browser and your username within yours so you can safely do something like this:
[php]INSERT INTO messages_table (name) VALUES ({$_SESSION[‘username’]})[/php]

Make sense?
Red

[K4ELO]

Thanks Redscouse. None of my php books seemed to make it clear that the $_SESSION values would be unique to each logged in user if I set them as part of the login process. This gives me a pretty good idea of how to proceed.

[Redscouse]

You’re welcome
Have a read of this, it may help a little more.