How does Zend_Auth storage work?

Question

This is very simple. I write

$auth->getStorage()->write($user);

And then I want, in a separate process to load this $user, but I can't because

$user = $auth->getIdentity();

is empty. Didn't I just... SET it? Why does it not work? Halp?

[EDIT 2011-04-13]

This has been asked almost two years ago. Fact is, though, that I repeated the question in July 2010 and got a fantastic answer that I back then simply did not understand.

Link: Zend_Auth fails to write to storage

I have since built a very nice litte class that I use (sometimes with extra tweaking) in all my projects using the same storage engine as Zend_Auth but circumventing all the bad.

<?php

class Qapacity_Helpers_Storage {

    public function save($name = 'default', $data) {

        $session = new Zend_Session_Namespace($name);
        $session->data = $data;

        return true;
    }

    public function load($name = 'default', $part = null) {

        $session = new Zend_Session_Namespace($name);

        if (!isset($session->data))
            return null;

        $data = $session->data;

        if ($part && isset($data[$part]))
            return $data[$part];

        return $data;
    }

    public function clear($name = 'default') {

        $session = new Zend_Session_Namespace($name);

        if (isset($session->data))
            unset($session->data);

        return true;
    }

}

?>

Solution

It's supposed to work.

Here's the implementation of the Auth getIdentity function.

/**
 * Returns the identity from storage or null if no identity is available
 *
 * @return mixed|null
 */
public function getIdentity()
{
    $storage = $this->getStorage();

    if ($storage->isEmpty()) {
        return null;
    }

    return $storage->read();
}

Here's the implementation of the PHP Session Storage write and read functions:

/**
 * Defined by Zend_Auth_Storage_Interface
 *
 * @return mixed
 */
public function read()
{
    return $this->_session->{$this->_member};
}

/**
 * Defined by Zend_Auth_Storage_Interface
 *
 * @param  mixed $contents
 * @return void
 */
public function write($contents)
{
    $this->_session->{$this->_member} = $contents;
}

Are you sure you are loading the same instance of the Zend_Auth class?

Are you using

$auth = Zend_Auth::getInstance();

Maybe you are calling the write method after the getIdentity method?

Anyway, as I said before, what you are doing should work.

Comments

[John]

Well, I think I have done all kind of experiments with this thing and all I got was mental bruises. Basically, I've done it by the book, then with modifications, then with rewrites, then with abstract random experiments without reaching any coherent conclusion. When updating the storage, it worked, but only if the user landed on the same page, and would finally be usable next refresh. If I had a redirect, it wouldn't work unless it was in a class that loaded another class, that updated the storage etc etc. My conclusion is that this crap is absolutely random. Thanks though.

[John]

Nono, it's the same domain. I will check out the cookie, though. By this time I am almost sure it could be pretty much anything, including the global warming, heh.

[Jai]

Just to confirm setting the storage directly does work for me. I use that method to force the identity in debug mode when disconnected so I can log in with my open ID login page. I think this being a session issue as described is your mostly likely problem.

[rodrigo-silveira]

This did not help