MySQL Cookbook

Using MySQL-Based Sessions in Perl Applications

Problem

You want to use session storage for Perl scripts.

Solution

The Apache::Session module provides a convenient way to use several different storage types, including one based on MySQL.

Discussion

Apache::Session is an easy-to-use Perl module for maintaining state information across multiple web requests. Despite the name, this module is not dependent on Apache and can be used in non-web contexts, for example, to maintain persistent state across multiple invocations of a command-line script. On the other hand, Apache::Session doesn’t handle any of the issues associated with tracking the session ID (sending it to the client in response to the initial request and extracting it from subsequent requests). The example application shown here uses cookies to pass the session ID, on the assumption that the client has cookies enabled.

Installing Apache::Session

If you don’t have Apache::Session, you can get it from the CPAN (visit http://cpan.perl.org). Installation is straightforward, although Apache::Session does require several other modules that you may need to get first. (When you install it, Apache::Session should tell you which required modules you need if any are missing.) After you have everything installed, create a table in which to store session records. The specification for the table comes from the MySQL storage handler documentation, which you can read using this command:

% perldoc Apache::Session::Store::MySQL

The table can be ...