Definition of Sessions?

I had a client ask me a question I couldn't quite answer simply, so I cam here to seek help (as usual!)

What are sessions (in laymans terms)?

thank you,

betty

In effect, they are what they say they are - visitor sessions.

With many content sites such as e-commerce, it's vital that the server keeps track of what a user is doing, particularly actions that are UNIQUE to that user (filling a shopping cart, sending payment details over the www, etc).

So, when a user starts to do things on the site that require such tracking, the server (software) sets a Cookie on the user's machine and allocates a unique session ID number.

Remember that the server is a busy place - in some webshops (Tesco) there's a paid transaction every 1.5 seconds on average (24 hours a day).

So, in order for the server to track all this activity and make absolutely sure that data is going to the right place, it allocates a session ID to the user.

This is not "malicious" behaviour (setting such cookies), but an essential part of the data transfer and capture process.

The internet was designed in a way like this:

1. You call me and say hey
2. I reply hey
3. You call me again and ask "remember me? I just called you"
4. I say: no, I dont know who you are at all
   (me = server)

Session in short is a way to get around this, so that I can have a way to know who you are (a logged in customer, a visitor with products in cart)...

More details in technical term:

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/intro.session.php

thank you both, hopefully that will appease the curious!

betty