CodeIgniter sessions vs PHP sessions
In my experience with CI I've encountered some anomalies with its sessions, but for most day-to-day needs the library is good and easy to work with. As it was pointed out, Flashdata is a very nice feature.
If you choose to stay with CI's sessions, I'd strongly suggest to store sessions in a database and, additionally, encrypt cookies:
$config['sess_encrypt_cookie'] = TRUE;$config['sess_use_database'] = TRUE;$config['sess_table_name'] = 'sessions';
The database structure should be as follows:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `sessions` ( session_id varchar(40) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL, ip_address varchar(16) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL, user_agent varchar(50) NOT NULL, last_activity int(10) unsigned DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL, user_data text NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (session_id));
The manual says more flexibility rather than better ;-)
I presume the main benefit of CodeIgnite session class is that it integrates with the framework and it offers a few extra functionality, such as IP address tracking and what it calls flashdata (session data that's erased as soon as it's read). If you are using a framework in the first place that means these options may be attractive for you.
Whatever, you can also save session data into a database:
Keep PHP session for important information and use CI session for less important info.
Read here wyh.http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/130577/