Http Session tutorial in laravel 8

Session :We can set the session data with two ways.

i. Golbal Session helper : global[‘key’=>’value’]

ii. Via Request Instance : $request->session()->put(‘key’,’value’)

Also we can get the session data using two ways

Global session: session(‘key’)

 $request->session()->get('key');

Retrieve all session data:

$request->session()->all();

Result:

{"key":"value","_token":"KHQeOmBtAjxXeBJ2blh6JD1T6G5leGP1Xo6kU81F","_previous":{"url":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:8000"},"_flash":{"old":[],"new":[]}}

then,we check to see if an item exits:

In route setting some key for session using global session helper.

session(['key' => 'value']);
session(['users'=>'']);

When we use has method with session() it will return true if user present in session .

if ($request->session()->has('user'))
{
    return $request-session()->get(‘user’);
 }
else if ($request->session()->has('key'))
    {
     return $request->session()->get('key');
    }

Result will be “value” as it will not return anything if a key’s value is null.We can also do this with exist method

if($request->session()->exists('users'))
{
    return "User :".$request->session()->get('users');
}
else if($request->session()->exists('key'))
{
    return "Key :".$request->session()->get('key');
}

But this time the result will come from ‘users’ key as it will return the value even if the key is null value.

Missing Method:

Using missing with session we can determine if a key is missing

if ($request->session()->missing('kkk'))
{
    return 'missing';
}

Setting and getting new value to session array using put

$request->session()->put('key2','val2');
return $request->session()->pull('key2');

But

  $request->session()->put('key2','val2');
     $request->session()->pull('key2');

 if ($request->session()->has('key2'))
{
    return 'user';
}
 else
 {
     return 'missing key2';
 }

The result will be ‘missing key2’ as  pull not only retrieve the key but also delete the key.

Incrementing and decrementing:

We can increment and decrement the session value

echo  $request->session()->increment('key5');

 return $request->session()->increment('key5');

$request->session()->decrement('count');

Result will 1 for first statement , 2 for second statement and 1 for last statement.

Note; When we use increment, decrement, it will automatically set the session value for us.

Flash Data:If we want to set the for next request then have to save the data using flash.

$request->session()->flash(‘key’,’val’);

Deleting Session data:

$request->session()->forget(‘key’);

To remove all data  we have to use flash()

$request->session_>flash();

Session Fixation : When an attacker  hijack a valid user session is called Session Fixation.

Regenerating The session ID:

To prevent session fixation we have to regenerate session id . Laravel automatically regenerates the session ID during authentication we we use one of the Laravel application starter kits or Laravel Fortify. Otherwise we have to do it manually

$request->session()->regenerate();

We also can regenerate() the session and remove all session data with it using below code

$request->session()->invalidate();