'My bookmarks' is empty for anonymous users

First, do you have page caching turned on for anonymous users? (beta4 has known bugs with this, which are already fixed in "dev".) If so, please turn it off.

I can see now the 'bookmark this' link on nodes

Go to some node page. (As an anonymous user.)

You see a "Bookmark this" link. Click it. The link has changed to "Unbookmark this", right?

Now refresh the page. Has the link stayed as "Unbookmark this"? Or has it reverted to "Bookmark this"?

It's said in Views to create a special one for anonymous users

You don't need to. (You already have a special page for the view. Whatever, this is irrelevant for our discussion.)

idem for dev. one

Please don't speak in codes.

(I'd appreciate your reply. This will tell us if you fell victim to this Session API bug.)

But I dont see where I can set page caching [...]
Generally I go to 'performance' for cache,

Yes, it's the "Performance" page.

but there is nothing specific for anonymous user !?

Just set "Caching mode" to "Disabled".

(The text there explains that it's for anonymous users. Use your browser's "find" command to see this, it you aren't convinced. This page was revamped in Drupal 7 to make this (and other things) clearer.)

Anyway I disabled everything in performance for caching

Good.

i still have this bug :
I can see Bookmark this; if i click it changes to unmark this; but if I F5, it turns back to Bookmark this.
Yet, I can see in Phpmyadmin that this node has been marked in the table.

Thanks for the report.

I have one little thing I want you to try.

Please add the following to your 'page.tpl.php' (it's in your theme's folder):

  if ($user->uid == 0) {
    print "Hello, anonymous! ";
    print "It's " . date('H:i:s', time()) . " now. ";
    print "Your SID is " . flag_get_sid() . " ";
    print "In other words, your SID is " . session_api_get_sid() . " ";
  }

This is a short diagnostic message. (The time it prints is just to make sure your page cache is turned off.)

Please tell us what it says (you'll have to be anonymous). Then refresh the page a couple of times and tell us if the "SID" number keeps changing. It shouldn't change. If it keeps changing then it means that there's a critical bug in the Session API module, which we ought to know about.

(The SID is printed twice: "Your SID is" and "In other words ...", please make sure these two numbers are the same.)

Hello, anonymous! It's 11:14:00 now. Your SID is 71 In other words, your SID is 71
Hello, anonymous! It's 11:14:00 now. Your SID is 72 In other words, your SID is 72
Hello, anonymous! It's 11:14:00 now. Your SID is 73 In other words, your SID is 73
etc.
So I think there is a bug in Session API and in the near future of my life...

Good. The more people encounter this bug, the better: it makes it easier to fix it.

The Session API module is tiny. Let's try something with it:

In its folder you'll find the file "session_api.module". Open it in an editor. You'll find two setcookie() calls that look like this:

setcookie(........., $cookie_domain);

Please change these two lines to:

setcookie(.........);

In other words, delete the last ", $cookie_domain". Save the file and see if this solves the problem. If it doesn't, there are more things to try (let me know which browser you're using).

Hello, anonymous! It's 11:14:00 now. Your SID is 71 In other words, your SID is 71
Hello, anonymous! It's 11:14:00 now. Your SID is 72 In other words, your SID is 72
Hello, anonymous! It's 11:14:00 now. Your SID is 73 In other words, your SID is 73

Hey, how is it that the time is always the same? 11:14:00.

due to my location, France, our discussion is quite slow

Does the time in France go *that* slow?

it WOOOOOOOOOOOORKS.
Great and quick job. And specially useful for everybody it seems.

Great. But wait, we need to investigate this a big more to tell the Session API maintainer what's the problem.

Please put the following in your page.tpl.php and tell us what it says:

  global $cookie_domain;
  print "Your cookie_domain is [$cookie_domain]. ";
  print "Its type is " . gettype($cookie_domain) . ". ";
  print "Your HTTP_HOST is [" . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . "]";

==

Another question : is [there] a debugger for Drupal : I'm an old VB6_ist, and I could go line by line, and see variables and objects.

I don't think a debugger like this is in itself useful (I used one for a short period of time). Why? Because it's more important to be familiar with the overall picture (and then you use "print" or "dsm" in strategic places). If you don't have this familiarity, you don't know what to look for. Or how to interpret the variables.

I've bought 'Pro Drupal Developments' but I really dont copy.
How did you learn ? Is it a framework ?

Each person has its own learning style.

When I use a book it's usually (depends on the book) in the later stages of the study process. I use it as a kind of summary. That's because book authors nowadays are extremely careful not to "frighten" the user. So they make up stories. Instead of quoting five simple lines of code from Drupal they stretch some prose over twelve pages, foolishly believing we enjoy reading it as much as they enjoyed writing it. Instead of giving the three lines of code that show how Form API does redirection they tell a metaphorical story about buying a present for their wife. Or telling you how yesterday they ordered food from Guadalajara for their parrot. You end up not fully understanding the subject. That's exasperating (and therefore: the book is harmful). Not to mention that it bloats the books (who has the energy to read through 800 pages?!)

When I started with Drupal it was at 4.7 and small. So reading its source code was a very natural choice. Today too I recommend this.

(BTW: later, if you want to turn page caching on, you'll have to upgrade to the "dev" version of Flag: it fixes a few related bugs (but none is related to the problem we're discussing now).)

Laurent, thanks for the feedback.

I posted a patch for the Session API module. You may want to "subscribe" there.

could you tell me how to display objects content and structure?

Well, in the beginning we were printing objects (or arrays) in this manner:

$node = node_load(379);
.
.
.
print '<pre>' . print_r($node, 1) . '</pre>';

Then came the Devel module, which provides some utility functions. After installing it you can use dsm() instead of that print statement. It comes with a widget that lets you browse large objects more conveniently: http://drupal.org/files/issues/full_var_1.jpg . Devel also adds tabs to nodes (and some other objects) so you can examine them quickly. It has some more utilities.

(Try googling "debugging drupal".)

I'm marking this a dup of #1005766: The SID is being bumped on every page..

Fatal error: Call to undefined function flag_get_sid()

Perhaps you've installed Flag 1.x? You need Flag 2.x for anon flagging.

Edit the "Bookmarks" flag. Do you have "anonymous users" turned on in the allowed roles? If this option isn't there at all, it's Flag 1.x.

(Another sign: Flag 1.x doesn't have "export". Do you have this command on the admin page?)

Are you still using beta4? If so, please upgrade to "dev". We'll then continue the discussion.

'My bookmarks' doesnt appear in Navigation for anon

Each view has access settings. Edit this view: make sure you gave anonymous users permission to access this view. If they don't have access to it, they won't see it in their menu.