Security Enforcer Timeout Question

Wappler General
1

If I understand correctly the security enforcer (in PHP) sets the session.gc_maxlifetime to some value. I know the default time can be set in the php,ini file. Unfortunately, on shared hosting plans you don’t have access to change that.

My question is what sort of things refresh that session? Is it just when you load a new page or refresh the current page? Or is there other interactions that keep the session alive? Perhaps there is some code you can add to change that timer?

I tried googling the subject but came up with no real helpful info.

2

I think basically anything that causes a server interaction would refresh the session lifetime.
So perhaps a simple server action which basically does nothing (perhaps just a set value) called from the action scheduler

1 Like
3

Testing that theory now. Hopefully that works. Default timeout is 22 minutes. Sometimes when we are dealing with clients it takes us longer than that to fill out a form.

4

Do you know which shared hosting provider will not let you edit the php.ini file? Do you have access to cPanel?

5

There is some setting in the ini file that can be changed but the maxtime isn’t one of them.

6

Some shared hosting providers will let you upload your own php.ini which overrides the original. Have you tried this?

7

The cPanel has a tool for it but unfortunately it doesn’t allow to change this value.

8

Would you be against using PHP code to extend the lifetime of the session cookie?

9

I wouldn’t be against that at all. I just don’t know how to go about it.

10

I have yet to try this in Wappler but have used this in the past for a similar situation. The code below should set the upper bound on the session duration

ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', 3600);

// should remember the session ID for 1 hour
session_set_cookie_params(3600);

session_start(); // should be good to go :)
11

Just wrap that in php tags?

12

Yes, but this may not work with all clients. Do you have a form or something on a page that you are trying to extend the session for?

13

Not a specific form. For example when one of our job coaches is meeting with a client they could have the client profile page open for an hour or so …

I will give your code a shott. Worth a try. All staff use Chrome browser.

14

Well, that didn't work. :frowning:

15

For some reason that code block prevents the page from loading.

16

Strange, mine is still working. I’ll PM you with some things to try out.

1 Like
17

Apparently it can be extended in the .htaccess file with one line of code.

php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 3600

I’d still like to know what triggers the time reset though.

18

Maybe @patrick can advise and implement this as additional server connect global setting.

19

As sessions are basically just cookies stored on the server it may be possible to manipulate its lifespan with something like this

<?php session_start([ 'cookie_lifetime' => 3600, ]); ?>
20

That would be a great global setting to be able to change. That one line in the.htaccess file seems to work.

I set it for two hours to test it and came back almost two hours later and was still logged in.