How do I share a PHP variable between multiple pages?

Question

The idea/goal:

I have a username and password inside a text file on my computer. The form on the index page allows the user to sign in with their us

Answer 1

You can start a session and put the form values into the $_SESSION variable, which will be available on all pages.

// On the page where your form is submitted:
session_start();
$_SESSION['name'] = $_POST['name'];

// On the page where the user is redirected:
session_start();
echo $_SESSION['name'];

Note that in reality you would probably want to include some form validation too!

Answer 2

1. Start a php session on each page right after the opening php tag:

   session_start();

After you determine that the name and password work, and before you do the redirect, add this line:

$_SESSION['name'] = $name;

On any subsequent pages, just echo something like this:

echo "Welcome ".$_SESSION['name'];

Answer 3

Use session variables

set:

session_start();
$_SESSION['username'] = "user1";

get:

session_start();
$username = $_SESSION['username'];

Answer 4

I agree with @Clément Malet & @Hammerstein. Sessions and/or cookies.

<?php 
    // always need this
    session_start();

    // set the value
    $_SESSION['username'] = 'Person';
?>

<?php
    //get session data
    echo $_SESSION['username'];

   // output: Person
?>

Answer 5

Use $_SESSION -!

session_start();
$_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['username'];

You of course want to filter/sanitize/validate your $_POST data, but that is outside of the scope of this question...

As long as you call session_start(); before you use $_SESSION - the values in the $_SESSION array will persist across pages until the user closes the browser.

If you want to end the session before that, like in a logout button --- use session_destroy()