Sessions

🔥 Hot Tips

• Tina4 sessions support three backends: database, Redis, and Memcached
• The database backend works with any Tina4 database driver (SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, etc.)
• The session table is created automatically on first use -- no migrations needed
• Redis and Memcached backends handle expiry via TTL, so no garbage collection overhead

Installation

composer require tina4stack/tina4php-session

Depending on your chosen backend, you may also need:

# For database sessions (pick your driver)
composer require tina4stack/tina4php-sqlite3
composer require tina4stack/tina4php-mysql

# For Redis sessions — requires ext-redis
# For Memcached sessions — requires ext-memcached

SessionConfig Options

All session behaviour is controlled through the SessionConfig class:

Property	Type	Default	Description
sessionType	string	'database'	Backend type: 'database', 'redis', or 'memcached'
database	?object	null	A Tina4 database driver instance (required for database)
tableName	string	'tina4_sessions'	Table name for database-backed sessions
lifetime	int	1440	Session lifetime in seconds (24 minutes, matches php.ini)
redisConfig	?array	null	Redis connection: ['host', 'port', 'auth']
memcachedConfig	?array	null	Memcached connection: ['host', 'port']

Database Backend

The database backend stores sessions in a SQL table and works with any Tina4 database driver. The table is created automatically when the session is first opened.

global $DBA;
$DBA = new \Tina4\DataSQLite3("mydb.db");

$config = new \Tina4\SessionConfig();
$config->sessionType = 'database';
$config->database = $DBA;
// $config->tableName = 'tina4_sessions'; // optional, this is the default

\Tina4\SessionHandler::start($config);

// Use sessions normally
$_SESSION['user'] = 'Andre';

Auto-Table Creation

On first open(), the DatabaseSession backend checks whether the session table exists using the driver's tableExists() method. If missing, it creates:

CREATE TABLE tina4_sessions (
    session_id VARCHAR(128) PRIMARY KEY,
    data TEXT,
    last_accessed INTEGER
)

Garbage collection removes rows where last_accessed is older than the configured lifetime.

Redis Backend

Redis sessions require the ext-redis PHP extension. Session keys are stored with the prefix tina4:session: and expire automatically via Redis TTL.

$config = new \Tina4\SessionConfig();
$config->sessionType = 'redis';
$config->redisConfig = [
    'host' => '127.0.0.1',
    'port' => 6379,
    'auth' => null, // set password if needed
];
$config->lifetime = 3600; // 1 hour

\Tina4\SessionHandler::start($config);

$_SESSION['token'] = bin2hex(random_bytes(16));

Memcached Backend

Memcached sessions require the ext-memcached PHP extension. Like Redis, keys use the tina4:session: prefix and TTL handles expiry.

$config = new \Tina4\SessionConfig();
$config->sessionType = 'memcached';
$config->memcachedConfig = [
    'host' => '127.0.0.1',
    'port' => 11211,
];

\Tina4\SessionHandler::start($config);

$_SESSION['cart'] = ['item1', 'item2'];

Putting It Together

A typical setup in your index.php:

<?php
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

global $DBA;
$DBA = new \Tina4\DataSQLite3("sessions.db");

$config = new \Tina4\SessionConfig();
$config->sessionType = 'database';
$config->database = $DBA;
$config->lifetime = 7200; // 2 hours

\Tina4\SessionHandler::start($config);

echo new \Tina4\Tina4Php();

After SessionHandler::start(), PHP's built-in $_SESSION superglobal works as expected. The handler registers itself via session_set_save_handler() and calls session_start() if no session is active.

Switching Backends

Because all three backends share the same SessionConfig entry point, switching is a one-line change:

$config->sessionType = 'redis'; // or 'memcached', or 'database'

Set the matching connection property (database, redisConfig, or memcachedConfig) and the handler takes care of the rest. An InvalidArgumentException is thrown if the required connection property is missing.