Is there something special in the way XOOPS handle sessions?

here is my situation:

I'm working on a module that uses complexes multi-pages forms. So I make extensive use of these coponents:
- PEAR:HTML_QuickForm
- PEAR:HTML_QuickForm_Controller (multi-pages forms)
- PEAR:HTML_QuickForm Smarty renderer
I also use XOOPS embeded Smarty engine with a local tpl file (not db::template).

To store values beetwen pages, QuickForm_Controller (QFC) uses sessions.

Everything is running well, but when I have to connect to a different database than XOOPS one (for fetching default form values), QFC is not able anymore to write session values...

So I tested various things:
- Tested the script outside XOOPS portal: running well
- Using $XoopsDB and querying XOOPS_DB_NAME: no problem, but I have to fetch data on a separate database.
I thought it was my DB connexion class (PEAR:B).
I manage to derivate the XOOPS database class to connect to a second database (see here) and again QFC cant write session values...

I seen 2 things:
- XOOPS use custom session handler ( and apparently serialized in a specific way (see
this thread))
- $xoopsDB object is stored in session

Finaly my questions are:
- do you think that connecting to a second database is changing something in the session handler?
- I suspect that connecting to a separate database is disturbing the XOOPS connexion_id stored in session, but how it can be intercepted?

Hoping to be clear enough
thanks if someone could help me

note: QFC uses $_SESSION[] to access session values

are you using custom sessions in System -> Preferences? What are the default session settings in your php installation?

tested the two option and returned to normal sessions in admin cp

My php version is 4.3.8,Apache/2.0.50 (Win32), here the sessions settings:



I have installed zend studio debuger (3.5.2) to track GLOBALS but the problem was present before...

thanks ackbarr