How to fix the session_register() deprecated issue?

Question

How to fix the session_register() deprecated problem in PHP 5.3

Answer 1

Don't use it. The description says:

Register one or more global variables with the current session.

Two things that came to my mind:

1. Using global variables is not good anyway, find a way to avoid them.
2. You can still set variables with $_SESSION['var'] = "value".

See also the warnings from the manual:

If you want your script to work regardless of register_globals, you need to instead use the $_SESSION array as $_SESSION entries are automatically registered. If your script uses session_register(), it will not work in environments where the PHP directive register_globals is disabled.

This is pretty important, because the register_globals directive is set to False by default!

Further:

This registers a global variable. If you want to register a session variable from within a function, you need to make sure to make it global using the global keyword or the $GLOBALS[] array, or use the special session arrays as noted below.

and

If you are using $_SESSION (or $HTTP_SESSION_VARS), do not use session_register(), session_is_registered(), and session_unregister().

Answer 2

Use $_SESSION directly to set variables. Like this:

$_SESSION['name'] = 'stack';

Instead of:

$name = 'stack';
session_register("name");

Read More Here

Answer 3

before PHP 5.3

session_register("name");

since PHP 5.3

$_SESSION['name'] = $name;

Answer 4

if you need a fallback function you could use this

function session_register($name){
    global $$name;
    $_SESSION[$name] = $$name;
    $$name = &$_SESSION[$name]; 
}

Answer 5

To complement Felix Kling's answer, I was studying a codebase that used to have the following code:

if (is_array($start_vars)) {
    foreach ($start_vars as $var) {
        session_register($var);
    }
} else if (!(empty($start_vars))) {
    session_register($start_vars);
}

In order to not use session_register they made the following adjustments:

if (is_array($start_vars)) {
    foreach ($start_vars as $var) {
        $_SESSION[$var] =  $GLOBALS[$var];
    }
} else if (!(empty($start_vars))) {
    $_SESSION[$start_vars] =  $GLOBALS[$start_vars];
}

Answer 6

I wrote myself a little wrapper, so I don't have to rewrite all of my code from the past decades, which emulates register_globals and the missing session functions.

I've picked up some ideas from different sources and put some own stuff to get a replacement for missing register_globals and missing session functions, so I don't have to rewrite all of my code from the past decades. The code also works with multidimensional arrays and builds globals from a session.

To get the code to work use auto_prepend_file on php.ini to specify the file containing the code below. E.g.: auto_prepend_file = /srv/www/php/.auto_prepend.php.inc

You should have runkit extension from PECL installed and the following entries on your php.ini:

extension_dir = <your extension dir>
extension = runkit.so
runkit.internal_override = On

.auto_prepend.php.inc:

<?php
//Fix for removed session functions
if (!function_exists('session_register'))
{
    function session_register()
    {
        $register_vars = func_get_args();
        foreach ($register_vars as $var_name)
        {
            $_SESSION[$var_name] = $GLOBALS[$var_name];
            if (!ini_get('register_globals'))
            {   $GLOBALS[$var_name] = &$_SESSION[$var_name]; }
        }
    }

    function session_is_registered($var_name)
    {   return isset($_SESSION[$var_name]); }

    function session_unregister($var_name)
    {   unset($_SESSION[$var_name]); }
}

//Fix for removed function register_globals
if (!isset($PXM_REG_GLOB))
{
    $PXM_REG_GLOB=1;
    if (!ini_get('register_globals'))
    {
        if (isset($_REQUEST))   { extract($_REQUEST); }
        if (isset($_SERVER))        { extract($_SERVER); }

        //$_SESSION globals must be registred with call of session_start()
        // Best option - Catch session_start call - Runkit extension from PECL must be present
        if (extension_loaded("runkit"))
        {
            if (!function_exists('session_start_default'))
            {   runkit_function_rename("session_start", "session_start_default"); }
            if (!function_exists('session_start'))
            {
                function session_start($options=null)
                {
                    $return=session_start_default($options);
                    if (isset($_SESSION))
                    {
                        $var_names=array_keys($_SESSION);
                        foreach($var_names as $var_name)
                        {   $GLOBALS[$var_name]=&$_SESSION[$var_name]; }
                    }
                    return $return;
                }
            }
        }
        // Second best option - Will always extract $_SESSION if session cookie is present.
        elseif ($_COOKIE["PHPSESSID"])
        {
            session_start();
            if (isset($_SESSION))
            {
                $var_names=array_keys($_SESSION);
                foreach($var_names as $var_name)
                {   $GLOBALS[$var_name]=&$_SESSION[$var_name]; }
            }
        }
    }
}
?>

Answer 7

We just have to use @ in front of the deprecated function. No need to change anything as mentioned in above posts. For example: if(!@session_is_registered("username")){ }. Just put @ and problem is solved.