How to Use PdoSessionHandler to Store Sessions in the Database

Configuring the Table and Column Names

This will expect a sessions table with a number of different columns. The table name, and all of the column names, can be configured by passing a second array argument to PdoSessionHandler:

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# app/config/config.yml
services:
    # ...

    Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\Handler\PdoSessionHandler:
        public:    false
        arguments:
            - 'mysql:dbname=mydatabase; host=myhost; port=myport'
            - { db_table: 'sessions', db_username: 'myuser', db_password: 'mypassword' }

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<!-- app/config/config.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

    <services>
        <service id="Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\Handler\PdoSessionHandler" public="false">
            <argument>mysql:dbname=mydatabase, host=myhost</argument>
            <argument type="collection">
                <argument key="db_table">sessions</argument>
                <argument key="db_username">myuser</argument>
                <argument key="db_password">mypassword</argument>
            </argument>
        </service>
    </services>
</container>

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// app/config/config.php
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\Handler\PdoSessionHandler;
// ...

$container->register(PdoSessionHandler::class)
    ->setArguments([
        'mysql:dbname=mydatabase; host=myhost; port=myport',
        ['db_table' => 'sessions', 'db_username' => 'myuser', 'db_password' => 'mypassword']
    ])
;

These are parameters that you can configure:

db_table (default sessions):

The name of the session table in your database;

db_id_col (default sess_id):

The name of the id column in your session table (VARCHAR(128));

db_data_col (default sess_data):

The name of the value column in your session table (BLOB);

db_time_col (default sess_time):

The name of the time column in your session table (INTEGER);

db_lifetime_col (default sess_lifetime):

The name of the lifetime column in your session table (INTEGER).

Sharing your Database Connection Information

With the given configuration, the database connection settings are defined for the session storage connection only. This is OK when you use a separate database for the session data.

But if you'd like to store the session data in the same database as the rest of your project's data, you can use the connection settings from the parameters.yml file by referencing the database-related parameters defined there:

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services:
    # ...

    Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\Handler\PdoSessionHandler:
        public:    false
        arguments:
            - 'mysql:host=%database_host%;port=%database_port%;dbname=%database_name%'
            - { db_username: '%database_user%', db_password: '%database_password%' }

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

    <services>
        <service id="Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\Handler\PdoSessionHandler" public="false">
            <argument>mysql:host=%database_host%;port=%database_port%;dbname=%database_name%</argument>
            <argument type="collection">
                <argument key="db_username">%database_user%</argument>
                <argument key="db_password">%database_password%</argument>
            </argument>
        </service>
    </services>
</container>

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// ...
$container->register(PdoSessionHandler::class)
    ->setArguments([
        'mysql:host=%database_host%;port=%database_port%;dbname=%database_name%',
        ['db_username' => '%database_user%', 'db_password' => '%database_password%']
    ])
;

Preparing the Database to Store Sessions

Before storing sessions in the database, you must create the table that stores the information. The session handler provides a method called createTable() to set up this table for you according to the database engine used:

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try {
    $sessionHandlerService->createTable();
} catch (\PDOException $exception) {
    // the table could not be created for some reason
}

If you prefer to set up the table yourself, these are some examples of the SQL statements you may use according to your specific database engine.

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CREATE TABLE `sessions` (
    `sess_id` VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    `sess_data` BLOB NOT NULL,
    `sess_time` INTEGER UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
    `sess_lifetime` INTEGER UNSIGNED NOT NULL
) COLLATE utf8mb4_bin, ENGINE = InnoDB;

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CREATE TABLE sessions (
    sess_id VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    sess_data BYTEA NOT NULL,
    sess_time INTEGER NOT NULL,
    sess_lifetime INTEGER NOT NULL
);

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CREATE TABLE [dbo].[sessions](
    [sess_id] [nvarchar](255) NOT NULL,
    [sess_data] [ntext] NOT NULL,
    [sess_time] [int] NOT NULL,
    [sess_lifetime] [int] NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED(
        [sess_id] ASC
    ) WITH (
        PAD_INDEX  = OFF,
        STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF,
        IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF,
        ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON,
        ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON
    ) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]