PHP Session Destroy on Log Out Button

Question

I'm currently working on a website that requires users to log in with a username and password. The password security is handled at the folder level by a Realm within the operating system of the web server. This will have to do for the time being till we come up with a suitable PHP log-in mechanism. I have three files (See code snippets at the bottom).

The method is: - On index.php, select the Log In button. - To access the authenticated index file, provide the login and password. To delete the cache and send the user back to the top-level index, click the logout button, which calls the logout.php code.

In essence, what I want to happen is that it doesn't "destroy the session" in the sense that you aren't requested to input the password again.

I'm a little lost on this one because of how little I know about PHP.

index.php (top-level file with login button)

<?php session_start(); ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<a href="authenticate/index.php">Log In Btn</a>
</body>
</html>

authenticate/index.php (This folder is password protected - contains the index file with the log out button which links to the logout.php file)

<?php session_start(); ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Log out</title>
</head>
<body>
<a href="logout.php">Log Out Btn</a>
</body>
</html>

authenticate/logout.php

<?php   
session_start(); //to ensure you are using same session
session_destroy(); //destroy the session
header("location:/index.php"); //to redirect back to "index.php" after logging out
exit();
?>

Can someone please help me with this?

score 0 · Answer 1 · Feb 11, 2023

Hey there, I think I'm actually kind of having the same issue. I have a logout button (wich is an icon) and I want it to trigger my LogOut() function when clicked

I currently have this in my nav bar (the <a> inside the "if" are meant to be shown only if user is logged)

```php

#<?php
#if (isset($_SESSION['nom'])){
#   include 'logout.php';
#   echo"
#   <a href=\"/page2.php\">Missions</a>
#   <a class=\"prof\"href=\"profil.php\">
#      <img class='pP'src=\"".$_SESSION['photo']."\">
#   </a>
#   <button name='submit' class='logout' type='submit'><img src='images/icons/blurple_power.svg' width='30' height='30'>

#   </button>";
#   if(isset($_POST["submit"])) { LogOut(); }
#}

#?>

and this in a logout.php file :

```php

#<?php
#function LogOut (){
#    session_start();
#    session_destroy();
#    header("Location: index.php");
#    exit;
#}
#?>

So, I guess I'm missing something, because I'm a bit rusty since I haven't use php (or any web language) for several years ... But at this point, for some reason, my button isn't even clickable, nothing happens when hovered or clicked, it basically acts like it's just an image