Session values not stored in an ASP.NET application

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I created an HttpHandler class in ASP.NET and configured a website to handle any request with the *.test path.

public class GameHandler : IHttpHandler, IRequiresSessionState
{
    public bool IsReusable
    {
        get
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
    public void ProcessRequest (HttpContext context)
    {
        if (context.Request.ContentType == "application/json; charset=utf-8")
        {
            ...
            switch (parameters ["type"])
            {
                case "Setup":
                    result = Setup (context);
                    break;
                case "DoStep":
                    result = DoStep (context, parameters);
                    break;
             }
             ...
         }
         else
             context.Response.Write (@"
                  <html>
                      <head>
                      </head>
                      <body>
                          <!-- some HTML -->
                      </body>
                  </html>"); // this is returned on first request
    }

In the Setup method I have such a code:
context.Session ["Game"] = new Game ();
In the DoStep method however, context.Session.Count = 0 and context.Session["Game"] is NULL. I figured out that context.Application also loses the values that I put in it. In client side I use jquery to call these functions. Such a call looks like this:

$.ajax({
       url: "/test.test",
       type: "POST",
       data: "{'type':'Setup'}",
       contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
       dataType: "json",
       success: function (result) {...}
});
$.ajax({
       url: "/test.test",
       type: "POST",
       data: "{'type':'DoStep','row':'" + row + "','column':'" + column + "'}",
       contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
       dataType: "json",
       success: function (result) {...}
});

I suspect the problem is that ASP.NET doesn't know these requests sent from javascript belong to the same session and that's why the Session values are lost. I think that I would need to send back some cookie information or something for the next request to be identified but the fact is I don't have any idea.

Any help is really appreciated.

Posted 10-Mar-11 22:27pm

Zoltan Aszalos

Updated 10-Mar-11 23:10pm

R. Giskard Reventlov

v2

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Christoph Keller · Answer 1 · 2011-03-10T23:40:00

Solution 1

Hello,

Do you access a ASP.NET Page (from the same ASP.NET application as the service is working on) before you execute the ajax requests?

If yes, try to save anything in the session before you deliver the page (for example a userId / GUID or if you do not need any useful data, save the current DateTime). This should make the session id permanent and usable for the ajax calls / services.

Hope this helps :)

Best regards and have a nice day,
Stops

Posted 10-Mar-11 23:40pm

Christoph Keller

Comments

Zoltan Aszalos 11-Mar-11 7:04am

Hi Stops,

No I don't access an ASP.NET page. I just type in http://localhost:83/test.test in the browser and that's all. I tried to save something in context.Session even at the first call to ProcessRequest but next time, the value was gone, and I still can't use context.Session.
What else could I try ?

Christoph Keller 11-Mar-11 7:13am

Could you post the sessionState entry in your web.config, perhaps there is something wrong.

Also could you try just writing out the session id (Session.SessionId), is it changing on each request or is it permanently the same?

Zoltan Aszalos 11-Mar-11 8:59am

This is from web.config: <sessionstate cookieless="false" mode="InProc" timeout="20">

I checked the session id and it is the same, it doesn't change on each request, but the values I store in Session are lost.

Christoph Keller 14-Mar-11 3:45am

Hi again,

Have you allready tried to just put a string or a int into the session and check if this would work?
How is your Game class defined, is it marked [Serializable] (required for objects which will be hold in the session / cache)?

Perhaps you could post the Game class in the answer (just the accessor definitions, code should not be required)?

Zoltan Aszalos 14-Mar-11 4:42am

Hi,

I tried to put a string value into the session:

var doc = XDocument.Load (@"c:\XO_Game_Website\bin\test.xml");

if (context.Session ["something"] == null)
{
context.Session.Add("something", "something");

doc.Root.Element ("xxx").Value = "null";
}
else
{
doc.Root.Element ("xxx").Value = "not null";
}

Every time the "null" text value is written into the file.

Christoph Keller 14-Mar-11 4:59am

I have now tried it locally. Could you test the following code:

File SessionTest.cs

=========================================
using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.SessionState;

namespace WebTest
{
public class SessionTest : IHttpHandler, IRequiresSessionState
{
public bool IsReusable
{
get { return false; }
}

public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
{
context.Response.ContentType = "text/html";

context.Response.Write("Session Test<br />============<br /><br />TestVar Value:<br />");
context.Response.Write(context.Session["TestVar"]);

context.Session["TestVar"] = DateTime.Now + " Hello World";
}
}
}
=========================================

Entry in the Web.config:

=========================================
<configuration>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" targetframework="4.0"></compilation>
<sessionstate mode="InProc"></sessionstate>
<httphandlers>
<add verb="*" path="*.test" type="WebTest.SessionTest"></add>
</httphandlers>
</system.web>
</configuration>
=========================================

the .cs file must be in the web project, otherwise you have to set the assembly-name in the httpHandlers/add/type.

When I test this code, it fails the first time (true, because no data is in the session) and all additional requests write out the current DateTime and the text "Hello World".

Zoltan Aszalos 14-Mar-11 6:34am

Thank you Stops. Finally I realised what the problem was. As I wrote in my last comment I used an xml file to save the results in it. I figured out that if I leave the doc.Save("path"); code in then the Session values are not kept. I removed the file manipulation code from the ProcessRequest method and everything worked just fine. This whole thing drove me crazy, but finally it's over. Nonetheless I can't figure out why on earth would the file manipulation code reset the session values.
Anyway, many thanks for your assistance.

Have a good day and happy coding.

Christoph Keller 14-Mar-11 6:38am

Hmm, this sounds strange... ;)
Perhaps the XDocument.Save() just resets the Response State, but this would be very strange...

Anyway, the essence is that you found the source of the problem and I hope you can do a workaround for this.

A good day to you too!

Greetings,
Stops