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EzSession - Standalone by JWT, Write & Read On-Demand

ezsession is a PHP session management library focused on an on-demand write and read strategy to optimize session data handling. It efficiently manages sessions using in-memory cache (e.g., Redis), permanent storage (e.g., MySQL), and JWT tokens, minimizing unnecessary storage queries and providing easy access to JWT for custom data handling. This approach ensures that session data is only written when required, significantly reducing storage operations and improving overall performance.

Features

• Write-On-Demand: Data is only written to storage when necessary, reducing the number of storage operations.
• Flexible Backend Storage: Uses Redis, memcached, APCu, ... for caching, SQLight, MySQL, Postgres, MongoDB, ... for persistent storage, and JWT for stateless session management.
• Easy Integration: Plug-and-play session management for PHP applications.
• Scalable & Secure: Optimizes read and write operations to ensure data persistence and secure session management.

Requirements

• PHP 7.4 or higher
• Redis server (for caching backend)
• MySQL server (for persistent storage)

Installation

You can install ezsession using Composer. Simply run:

Then, include the autoloader in your script:

Configuration

Redis & MySQL Setup

Before using ezsession, make sure you have access to a running Redis and MySQL server. Update your database credentials and Redis configuration accordingly.

Usage

To use ezsession in your PHP application, initialize the session handler and start a session as follows:

How It Works

ezsession handles session data efficiently by using a combination of JWT tokens, Redis, and MySQL to reduce unnecessary storage operations:

1. Session Initialization: On the first request, ezsession generates a session ID using a UUID and issues a JWT token signed with your application secret key. This token is returned as a session cookie (with the name defined in the configuration).

2. Subsequent Requests: For the rest of the requests, the session token is retrieved either via the same cookie or from the Authorization Bearer header. After validation, ezsession checks the "stored" flag in the JWT:

   • If the "stored" flag is false, it means there is no data in the cache or permanent storage, so the JWT value is returned to $_SESSION and is accessible via $_SESSION['jwt'].
   • If nothing has been written to the session, ezsession does not write anything to cache or database and does not perform any queries.

3. Writing to Session: When something is written to the session (e.g., $_SESSION['name'] = 'John';), ezsession stores this data in both Redis and MySQL, updates the "stored" flag to true, and generates a new JWT token. This updated token is then returned to the client, replacing the previous token automatically.

4. Data Retrieval: When the "stored" flag is true, ezsession first checks Redis for the data:

   • If the data is found in Redis, it is returned.
   • If not, ezsession queries MySQL, and if the data is found, it caches it in Redis for future requests.
5. Unset Session Values: If all session values are unset, the "stored" flag is set back to false, and requests are handled purely through the JWT without accessing cache or database.

Working with JWT Data

A key feature of ezsession is the ability to add, modify, or delete custom data in the JWT token directly:

• Access the JWT data using $_SESSION['jwt']. For example, you can add a user_id to the JWT like this:

• Modifying the JWT in this way forces ezsession to regenerate the token and send it back through subsequent requests, minimizing session storage queries.

Example Usage

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to fork this repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request. Let's make session management easier for everyone.

License

ezsession is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more details.

Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions, please open an issue on GitHub or contact me at [email protected].

Future Improvements

• Enhanced JWT Features: Add more advanced JWT functionality, such as expiration handling.
• Flexible Backends: Support for additional databases and caching systems.
• Improved Performance: Further optimize the read/write strategies.

Thank you for using ezsession! We hope it makes your session management process more enjoyable.