Keeping $_SESSION in jquery ui tabs, is this actually doable? - php

Question

So I've been trying to solve this issue for a very long time now, and I'm at my wit's end.
So within a web application I'm working on, the basic idea is that the user logs in, then a session is created in $_SESSION. I can see the contents of it just fine on the index page through print_r($_SESSION).
On the index is some jQuery UI tabs, and those tabs link to some subdirectories like content/index.php or action/index.php Inside those tabs, trying the aforementioned print statement doesn't return anything at all. It's like it can't see the session at all.
On the index, I have a function called sec_session_start() that's been used, and I think there's a possibility of this being an issue. The code for that is this:
function sec_session_start() {
$session_name = 'sample'; // Set a custom session name
$secure = SECURE;
// This stops JavaScript being able to access the session id.
$httponly = true;
// Forces sessions to only use cookies.
if (ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', 1) === FALSE) {
header("Location: ../error.php?err=Could not initiate a safe session (ini_set)");
exit();
}
// Gets current cookies params.
$cookieParams = session_get_cookie_params();
session_set_cookie_params($cookieParams["lifetime"],
$cookieParams["path"],
$cookieParams["domain"],
$secure,
$httponly
);
// Sets the session name to the one set above.
session_name($session_name);
session_start(); // Start the PHP session
session_regenerate_id(); // regenerated the session, delete the old one.
}
Looking at this, the only thing I can think of is session.use_only_cookies's INI setting being the issue for this. Could that be what's blocking me from accessing the session within the tabs? I inherited this and have no clue why it's not letting me access the session regardless.
EDIT 1:
index.php:
<?php
print_r($_SESSION); //prints everything
?>
action/index.php or content/index.php retrieved through ajax call via tabs:
<?php
print_r($_SESSION); //returns nothing.
?>
EDIT 2:
I figured out the issue. Turns out, the session was stored in a cookie and encrypted. By accessing it via session_name(); then starting a session on each page, I can see the variables.