What are best practices for handling session variables and ensuring their consistency in PHP scripts that involve generating and displaying images?
When working with session variables in PHP scripts that involve generating and displaying images, it's important to ensure their consistency by properly managing the session data. One way to achieve this is by starting the session at the beginning of the script and ensuring that session variables are properly set and unset as needed. Additionally, it's crucial to handle any potential conflicts that may arise when dealing with image generation and session data simultaneously.
<?php
session_start();
// Set session variable
$_SESSION['image_generated'] = true;
// Generate and display image
$image = imagecreate(200, 200);
$bg_color = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);
$text_color = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 0);
imagestring($image, 5, 50, 50, 'Hello World!', $text_color);
header('Content-type: image/png');
imagepng($image);
imagedestroy($image);
// Unset session variable after image generation
unset($_SESSION['image_generated']);
?>