Ideas on how to implement notifications using $_SESSION

Kirby 2 Questions 🤔
1

I am trying to build a notification system using PHP session variables ($_SESSION).

My concept is the following:

1 - Loop in a structure field to count the fields within
2 - Store resulting number in a session variable [‘alllogs’]
3 - Set [‘newlogs’] equal to [‘alllogs’]
4 - Display [‘newlogs’] as 'n notifications’
5 - Vewing the notifications will set [‘readlogs’] equal to [‘alllogs’]
6 - After event, unset all variables except [‘readlogs’]
7 - If new content is added [‘newlogs’] equals [‘alllogs’] - [‘readlogs’]
8 - Display [‘newlogs’] values as ‘n notifications’

Everything is working fine both locally and remote. BUT:

  • When the page is visited (session started) in another computer, I got notifications again for the session started in MY computer.

I know it has something to be with the logic I’m using. Initially I thought that PHP were not using cookies for sessions, but it is.

What I need is either Ideas on how to fix this, or even better, how to tie the notifications to the user instead of session. Somehow add the values in a field on the page and compare it? It is possible to write/modify a field value directly from the page?

Any feedback is appreciated.

2

Local storage (save data with JS in the browser), cookie or store an IP number is the first that comes to mind.

3

A php session is always connected to a device, not a user, because php does not know about (kirby) users.
Another thing is, that I don´t know how long sessions are stored (unless you destroy it in your code). So values stored in a session should not be used as they were store forever !?

For adding custom values to the user object you should take a look at the user class kirby/core/user.php. You probably can add data to the user object with the $user->update method and retrieve it with the $user->data method.
I have not tested this, but it seems to be the right place. Take a look at the user´s file in /site/accounts to check whether the data is stored.

4

I like that idea of storing data to the users file, I am doing something similar in a current project and it works really well. I am storing current states of the page according to the user. It works well with ->update(); you can define what ever key/value you like.