Setting Custom Session in index.php - Problems

Question

Creating a custom session in a store view's index.php in a subdirectory of the main magento installion.

The code I added is as follows:

require_once $mageFilename;
Mage::init();
Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setRefer("access");
$refer = Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getRefer();
echo $refer;

I added the code under require_once $mageFilename; in index.php otherwise I would get Mage errors.

I want to use the session for something more complex but I can't get even this basic code to work!

This causes the mantenance page to display for some reason with access echod at the top of the page. Maintenance displays even when I take out the code which displays the maintenence page inside the index.php.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

EDIT1:

When moving my code to bottom of file:

$mageRunCode = 'mystore';
$mageRunType = 'store';
Mage::run($mageRunCode, $mageRunType);
Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setRefer("denied");
$refer = Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getRefer();
if($refer == "access") {
}else{
    include_once 'XXXXXXXXX/503.php';
    exit;
}

This makes my store view appear and then stacks the maintenance page below it!

Answer 1

Try putting it at the bottom of the file. It worked like this for me without the first two lines

Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setRefer("access");
$refer = Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getRefer();
echo $refer;

Re: new problem

Try copying line 64 -

if (file_exists($maintenanceFile)) {
    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/errors/503.php';
    exit;
} 

to after

require_once $mageFilename;

and add in the check for the session like -

$maintenanceFile = 'path to file';
require_once $mageFilename;
if (file_exists($maintenanceFile) && $refer != 'access') {
    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/errors/503.php';
    exit;
} 

Fyi - using regular php session variables might be more suitable if you need to do much with them in index.php. The reasons for the errors is because of Mage not being loaded when you try to use it.