Best way to deal with session handling in Zend Framework - php

Question

So I'm starting up in Zend framework and looking to implement a site-wide "User" session.... something I can easily access from ALL modules/controllers in the application.
I'm like, should I make a new namespace in the library and extend the controller, like:
class MYCUSTOMLIB_Controller_Action extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
protected $_userSession;
function preDispatch(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $req)
{
$this->_userSession = new Zend_Session_Namespace('user');
}
}
ANd then have all my controllers/modules/etc extend from that?
Or should I create a Plugin or what? How would you go about making this plugin to pass the user session to the controller?
Or do I do it in the bootstrap?? Again how to pass to controller?
Also should I use Zend_Session_Namespace or Zend_Http_Cookie and also how do I encrypt and xss clean the cookie or is that done automagically?

Answer 1

I would initialise in the bootstrap too:
//Bootstrap.php
protected function _initUserSession()
{
return new Zend_Session_Namespace('user');
}
Then I would use an action helper:
// library/App/Controller/Action/Helper/Session.php
class App_Controller_Action_Helper_Session extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{
function direct()
{
return $this->getFrontController()->getParam('userSession');
}
}
You access it in your controller like this:
function indexAction()
{
$session = $this->_helper->session;
}

Answer 2

You should initialize your session in the bootstrap. You can either put it in the Zend_Registry and access it that way or from your controllers you can access your bootstrap by calling $this->getInvokeArg('bootstrap').
// in your controllers
public function init()
{
$bootstrap = $this->getInvokeArg('bootstrap');
$this->_session = $bootstrap->getResource('session');
}