Session ends too quickly

I have installed PowerCMS and it works fine (mostly). However, when I am on the contents_update page, the session will end within a few (3 or so) minutes, so that when I finish entering the changes I want and go to save, it takes me to the login page and my changes are lost.

If I am not trying to save and am on the index page, or contents result page, the session will not end that quickly.

My php.ini settings (on GoDaddy) are, from the look of things, set to the defaults and should not cause a disruption; mysql.allow_persistent = on, session.cookie_lifetime = 0, session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440.

Any ideas?

If the session is expiring you might need to update the max lifetime setting using the ini set function like this:

<?php

ini_set("session.gc_maxlifetime", "5400");

?>

This would set the max lifetime to 1.5 hours. Please give this a try by putting this code at the top of the page to see if it helps.

Hi,
I have the same problem, and thank you for your answer, but I don't understand on which page does the code go on top of, please?
Thank you!

Hi,
Ok, I figured out you meant the contents_update.php page. I put the code at the top of the page, and uploaded, started an edit session and when I went to save I got thrown out and had to re login, lost all the updates. Is there anything else that can be done, or did I put the code in the wrong place?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.. I have a couple clients waiting for their site to work.
Thank you,
Gerlinda

In addition to the code that was posted you may also want to try using this code as well:

<?php session_cache_expire("5400");

ini_set("session.gc_maxlifetime", "5400");?>

This might help if the problem is that the session data is being cleared from the session save path while the editor is being filled out.

Hi,
Thank you for getting back to me. I tried the new code, but it came back with an error now when going to edit a page.

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /**/**/public_html/admin/contents_update.php:3) in /**/**/public_html/WA_SecurityAssist/Helper_PHP.php on line 5


Any other ideas appreciated, I'm stumped. thank you,
Gerlinda

When you get this message it is usually because of some white space that is outside of the php block. It looks like this output is occurring on line 3, look around this line for any spaces, tabs or anything like that outside of the php blocks and delete it.

This should at least get you able to run this code. I'm not sure it the code will solve the problem you are experiencing though.

Hi,
I did find some white space, thank you. Didn't get an error this time, but it still didn't solve the problem. Any other ideas? It is a startlogic server and they just updated to PHP Version 5.2.12 updated on February 12 2010.
Thank you your help greatly appreciated.
Gerlinda

Hi,
Is there any answer to this problem, still the same, the code hasn't done anything to solve it. My client is getting testy as to losing her content. All other websites are working fine that have PCMS installed. Your help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Gerlinda

If the code that was given does not have any effect I'm not sure what else you could try. The problem is that it is not known why the session is being cleared. If the reason for the session being cleared were known you might be able to do something to deter it. As it is now it is just a game of guess and check and I have run out of guesses myself.

Is this a problem that you can reproduce yourself? It might be worth trying the exact same thing as the user who is reporting the problem and see if you can get the same result. If you cannot get the same result it might be possible that it is a client side issue of some type.