An Overview of the PHP Function Session_ID and Its Options
The php function session_id is used to get or set the current session id. The id is an unique number that identifies the web browser or application accessing the server. This enables the server to identify the user and preserve data between requests. This allows websites to offer personalized displays based on the user's previous interactions with the website or application.
When a browser opens a URL the server creates a unique number called the session id and stores it in a cookie on the browser or in a file on the server. The browser then passes the id along with every request to the server. When the user closes the browser or the server is shut down, the id expires. This ensures that the user cannot use the same session to log in again with a different computer or browser.
This article provides an overview of the php function session_id and its options. It explains how it works and gives examples of its use.
In addition to the default options, you can control how sessions are initialized with the session_start() function. This can be done by modifying the session_id_method option. The default value is 'php' which uses the standard PHP serialization functions. Another possible value is 'wddx' which uses the WDDX libraries to encode variables as XML.
The session_id_length option controls the length of the random number used to seed the session ID. This is helpful in making sure that a session ID doesn't become predictable. You can also use a /dev/urandom device to produce random bytes for the ID, which can make it harder to guess.