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InitPHP Sessions — Wiki

Welcome to the official documentation for initphp/sessions — a small, framework-agnostic session manager that puts a fluent, exception-aware API in front of PHP's native sessions, with pluggable save handlers so you can store sessions wherever you like.

The package ships three building blocks:

Type	Purpose
Session	The facade you call (Session::set(...), Session::start()).
AbstractAdapter	Base class for save handlers; implement read/write/destroy.
AdapterInterface	The contract — extends PHP's native SessionHandlerInterface.

composer require initphp/sessions

use InitPHP\Sessions\Session;

Session::createImmutable()
    ->start();

Session::set('username', 'admin')
    ->set('mail', 'admin@example.com');

echo Session::get('username', 'guest'); // 'admin'

Start here

• New to the package? Read Installation, then Quick Start.
• Want the big picture? Read The Session Facade.
• Storing sessions somewhere specific? See Adapters and pick a backend.
• Building login? Read the Authentication recipe.
• Need a method signature? The API Reference lists every public member.
• Upgrading? Read the Migration Guide.

What it does

• A fluent facade over $_SESSION and the session_*() lifecycle — readable reads, chainable writes, and predictable exceptions instead of raw warnings.
• Six bundled adapters behind one interface: File, Redis, PDO (MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite), Cookie (encrypted, server-less), Memcache/Memcached, and MongoDB.
• A tiny extension point — write your own handler by extending AbstractAdapter.
• Drops in alongside plain $_SESSION; it is a convenience layer, not a replacement.

Adapter cheat-sheet

Adapter	Stores in	Requires	Built-in expiry
File	Files in a directory	—	via gc()
Redis	Redis	ext-redis	TTL
PDO	SQL database	ext-pdo + driver	via gc()
Cookie	Encrypted client cookie	initphp/encryption, ext-openssl	cookie lifetime
Memcache(d)	Memcache/Memcached	ext-memcached or ext-memcache	TTL
MongoDB	MongoDB	ext-mongodb	via gc()

Package metadata

• License: MIT
• Minimum PHP: 8.1 (tested on 8.1 – 8.4)
• Runtime dependencies: none (adapters pull in their own extensions)
• Packagist: initphp/sessions
• Source: github.com/InitPHP/Sessions
• Issues: github.com/InitPHP/Sessions/issues
• Discussions: github.com/orgs/InitPHP/discussions
• Security: SECURITY.md

If something in this wiki is unclear, ambiguous, or wrong, please open an issue — documentation fixes are reviewed eagerly.