Codeigniter set_flashdata returns page cannot be displayed on just this one server

Question

Ok this is a weird one. I've just moved the CodeIgniter code to my client's webhost, serverlogic.com. This code has been working on over 40 other servers, but now suddenly I'm running into walls. I'm using DB sessions.

This doesn't work:

$this->session->set_flashdata('contact_message', validation_errors());
$this->session->set_flashdata('first_name', $this->input->post('first_name'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('last_name', $this->input->post('last_name'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('email', $this->input->post('email'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('zip', $this->input->post('zip'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('phone', $this->input->post('phone'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('comments', $this->input->post('comments'));

This works:

$this->session->set_flashdata('contact_message', validation_errors());
$this->session->set_flashdata('first_name', $this->input->post('first_name'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('last_name', $this->input->post('last_name'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('email', $this->input->post('email'));
/*$this->session->set_flashdata('zip', $this->input->post('zip'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('phone', $this->input->post('phone'));
$this->session->set_flashdata('comments', $this->input->post('comments'));*/

As the set_flashdata() method uses cookies to keep track of data, could it be that there is some server limit that is hit once there is too much data stored in the cookies? When investigating the headers on my server it's setting more cookies when compared to this server.

I'm also getting a PHPSESSID cookie from their server, but I don't know where it is coming from. i'm not a server admin and as they are using Nginx I'm totally in the dark on this one.

Answer 1

Have you tried commenting out each set_flashdata to see if it's one particular statement? Or did you work backwards from comments? Or did you just happen to start with zip?

If you are using DB sessions the structure of your table where the session data is being stored is important. The only thing I can think of is that your columns aren't set up correctly for the types of data and the length of each amount of data being stored.

Maybe double-check the table structure with other tables you have defined on the servers.

Answer 2

As the set_flashdata() method uses cookies to keep track of data, could it be that there is some server limit that is hit once there is too much data stored in the cookies? When investigating the headers on my server it's setting more cookies when compared to this server.

You just answered your own question,

As you said flashdata uses cookies to store the data, the fact that it is only this one server means a possibility of two things.

• This particular setup is setting more data due to your code (eg you might not be storing a particular variable on your other setups which just happens to be tipping this over the edge).

• This server is setting more cookies by itself (a possibility with nginx), it could also be an issue with nginx doing some form of internal rewrite on your cookies so a domain issue is stopping the cookies from working properly, but this is less likely.

You said that you get a page cannot be displayed error, my suggestion, look into the server logs to find out if there are any errors. next inspect the cookies using the chrome developer tools or similar, find out if the data looks like it has suddenly been cut off.