flash_set, flash_get in PHP?

Question

Hi, so i got told in this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2291413/php-javascript-passing-message-to-another-page

to use flash_set and flash_get, concept called "Rails flash".. Now can you use them in php those function? I can really find them in php library site, so im not sure..

Answer 1

You can store the messages you want to flash on the next page request in the $_SESSION. I don't know exactly how the methods work in rails but hopefully these two functions can be of use:

function flash_get()
{
    // If there are any messages in the queue
    if(isset($_SESSION['flashMessages']))
    {
        // Fetch the message queue
        $messages = $_SESSION['flashMessages'];

        // Empty out the message queue
        unset($_SESSION['flashMessages']);

        return $messages;
    }

    // No messages so just return an empty array
    return array();
}

function flash_set($message)
{
    // If the queue is currently empty we need to create an array
    if(!isset($_SESSION['flashMessages'])) {
        $_SESSION['flashMessages'] = array();
    }

    // Fetch the current list of messages and append the new one to the end
    $messages = $_SESSION['flashMessages'];
    $messages[] = $message;

    // Store the message queue back in the session
    $_SESSION['flashMessages'] = $messages;
}

Just call flash_set() with the message you want to store and flash_get() will give you that array back and flush the queue on a later page request.

You'll have to make sure as well that you call session_start() with every page request for these methods to work.