User Sessions in Winter Boot

Remember logged-in users across requests: log in, read the session, and log out with RequestSession.

When someone logs in to your app, you want the app to remember them on every page after that. That memory is called a session: the server stores a few facts (for example, the username), and the browser holds a small cookie with a session id that points to those facts.

Under Swoole, many requests share one server process, so sessions must be kept in per-request objects — never in shared variables. Winter Boot gives you three pieces for this: SessionManager opens and saves sessions, RequestSession holds one request’s session data, and SessionOptions describes the cookie.

Logging in

Ask the manager for the session, store what you need, and save it before returning. Everything is ready to autowire — no setup code is needed:

AuthController.php

use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Autowired;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\RestController;
use dev\winterframework\web\http\HttpRequest;
use dev\winterframework\web\http\ResponseEntity;
use dev\winterframework\web\session\SessionManager;
use dev\winterframework\web\session\SessionOptions;

#[RestController]
class AuthController
{
    #[Autowired]
    protected SessionManager $sessions;

    #[Autowired]
    protected \SessionHandlerInterface $store;

    // One line per login flow: each flow gets its own cookie setup.
    private SessionOptions $options;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->options = new SessionOptions(name: 'SID', expirySecs: 3600);
    }

    public function login(HttpRequest $req): ResponseEntity
    {
        $session = $this->sessions->open($req, $this->store, $this->options);
        $session->setUsername('alice');
        $session->set('role', 'admin');

        $res = ResponseEntity::ok(['status' => 'logged-in']);
        $this->sessions->commit($session, $res, $this->store, $this->options);
        return $res;
    }
}

commit() saves the data and puts the session id into a cookie on the response. Always call it before returning — anything you set() without commit() is thrown away when the request ends.

Reading the session on the next request

Open the session the same way. If the browser sent back a valid session cookie, you get the stored data; otherwise you get a fresh, empty session:

$session = $this->sessions->open($req, $this->store, $this->options);
if ($session->isNew()) {
    // not logged in
}
$role = $session->get('role');

Logging out

$session = $this->sessions->open($req, $this->store, $this->options);
$session->destroy();
$this->sessions->commit($session, $res, $this->store, $this->options);

This deletes the stored data and tells the browser to drop the cookie.

Cookie settings

SessionOptions is a plain object — you create one per login flow with new, right where you use it. Different flows need different cookies: an admin login might last 15 minutes on HTTPS only, while a regular user login lasts all day. Give each flow its own cookie name and they stay independent, even in the same browser:

$adminSessions = new SessionOptions(
    name: 'ADMINSESSID',   // cookie name
    expirySecs: 900,       // login lifetime in seconds; 0 = until the browser closes
    path: '/',             // which site paths receive the cookie
    domain: '',            // empty = current domain only
    secure: true,          // send the cookie over HTTPS only
    httponly: true,        // hide the cookie from JavaScript
);

$userSessions = new SessionOptions(
    name: 'USERSESSID',
    expirySecs: 86400,
    path: '/',
    domain: '',
    secure: true,
    httponly: true,
);

Pass the right one to open() and commit(). Both flows can share the same store — the cookie name keeps their sessions apart. If you only ever need one kind of login, one SessionOptions is enough.

Knowing who is logged in

Two fields travel with every session: username and session type. Set them at login:

$session->setUsername('alice');
$session->setSessionType(1);

They are loaded back automatically on every later request, so code that only updates other data never erases them. The username is written once at login: later saves that carry no name keep the stored one, so it cannot be wiped by accident — only a new name replaces it. The session type is a number your app defines (for example, 1 for admins) — 0 simply means “no type set”.

Where sessions are kept

Out of the box, sessions are stored in files on the server — fine for getting started or a single server. For several servers, or sessions that must survive a restart, use a database or Redis instead by declaring one store bean (it must return \SessionHandlerInterface):

Database sessions

Create the table once:

CREATE TABLE winter_sessions (
    session_id VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    username VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    expiry BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    created_at BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    updated_at BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    session_type SMALLINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    session_data TEXT
);

Then expose the store:

SessionConfig.php

use dev\winterframework\pdbc\PdbcTemplate;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Autowired;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Bean;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Configuration;
use dev\winterframework\web\session\PdbcSessionStore;

#[Configuration]
class SessionConfig
{
    #[Autowired]
    protected PdbcTemplate $pdbc;

    #[Bean]
    public function sessionStore(): \SessionHandlerInterface
    {
        return new PdbcSessionStore($this->pdbc, table: 'winter_sessions', ttlSecs: 3600);
    }
}

created_at records when the session was first saved; updated_at refreshes on every save. Old, expired sessions can be cleaned up automatically.

Redis sessions

The winter-data-redis module offers dev\winterframework\data\redis\session\RedisSessionStore, which keeps each session as a hash under keyPrefix + sessionId and lets Redis expire old sessions by itself. Like the database store, it persists username and session type with the same write-once rule:

SessionConfig.php

use dev\winterframework\data\redis\phpredis\PhpRedisTemplate;
use dev\winterframework\data\redis\session\RedisSessionStore;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Autowired;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Bean;
use dev\winterframework\stereotype\Configuration;

#[Configuration]
class SessionConfig
{
    #[Autowired]
    protected PhpRedisTemplate $redis;

    #[Bean]
    public function sessionStore(): \SessionHandlerInterface
    {
        return new RedisSessionStore($this->redis, keyPrefix: 'myapp:sess:', ttlSecs: 3600);
    }
}

The session API

What you call	What it does
getId()	The session id from the browser’s cookie, or a fresh one
isNew()	True when there is no saved data for this id (not logged in)
get($key, $default = null)	Read one stored value
set($key, $value)	Store one value (kept only after commit())
remove($key)	Delete one stored value
destroy()	Log out: delete everything on the next commit()
getUsername() / setUsername($u)	Who the session belongs to
getSessionType() / setSessionType($t)	Your own session category number