Building a session-based registry - PHP

In reality, building a session-driven registry is very similar to creating one that handles resources via arrays, except for some tiny subtleties that are easy to guess: first, the registry must be capable of creating and destroying sessions through specific methods; and second, all of the resources must be stored on the familiar $_SESSION PHP array.

With that said, here's the definition of this whole new registry class, which fits the aforementioned requirements in a pretty decent way:

(SessionRegistry.php)

<?php

class SessionRegistry extends AbstractRegistry

{

// protected constructor

protected function __construct()

{

session_start();

}

// serve data to the session registry

public function set($key, $value)

{

$_SESSION[$key] = $value;

}

// get session data from the session registry

public function get($key)

{

return isset($_SESSION[$key]) ? $_SESSION[$key] : NULL;

}

// clear the state of the session registry

public function clear()

{

session_start();

session_unset();

session_destroy();

}

}

As I explained a moment ago, creating a registry that saves and fetches session data is an approachable process that doesn't bear any further discussion. In the class above, the constructor is responsible for creating/resuming a session, while the "clear()" method is charged with destroying it by using some session-related PHP functions, which you've surely used hundreds of times before.

Disguised under the rather obscure name of "session-based registry," the previous class is nothing but a simple (yet functional) session handling class that allows you to manipulate session data via a couple of setters and getters, and nothing else.

So, do you understand how this registry does its thing? Great. Now, it's time to leap forward and give it a try, so you can see for yourself if it works as expected. This testing process will be accomplished in the following section, so go ahead and read the lines to come.