Re: [wsrp-interop] on initCookies and sessionID

From
Blejandro Bbdelnur
Date
2003-11-19T18:33:04+00:00
ID
Thread
Re: [wsrp-interop] on initCookies and sessionID
The lesson learned from this one is 'Do not mistake session with session' :)

I think it would help if we clarify the spec on this.

Thanks.

Alejandro

On Wednesday, November 19, 2003, at 04:52  AM, Rich Thompson wrote:

My take on the answers:

First, overall comments: Private sessions between the end-user and particular instances of a portlet are modeled in the protocol via sessionID. It was also recognized that various systems have reasons to use a cookie to carry session information, though these types of sessions are not always unique to a portlet instance. As a result, these two tend to closely parallel each other while never being linked.

Q1. Is there any required relationship between the cookies returned by initCookie and the sessionID returned by the markup interface calls?

A1. No, though if the CookieProtocol is perUser then they do carry the same semantics.

Q2. If a call returns an InvalidCookie fault, should the consumer discard the sessionID?

A2. No, the cookies are independent of the private sessionID and are not necessarily related to a session at all.

Q3. If a call returns an InvalidSession fault, should the consumer call initCookie again?

A3. same as A2.

Sorry if the fault descriptions are confusing:

 - InvalidSession fault is used only when the private session has timed out and required data had been cached in the session (templates or UserContext). If the session did not contain such data or it is also available via the supplied data on the invocation, the Producer can simply create a new session and include it in the returned data structure for future invocations from the Consumer.

 - InvalidCookie fault is used only when the cookies established by initCookie become invalid. This signals to the Consumer the need to invoke initCookie again. Since some Producers will establish a session related to these cookies, it would be wise for the Consumer to resend templates and UserContext when reinvoking the operation that caused the InvalidCookie fault as this can avoid the next invocation returning an InvalidSession fault.

Rich

<image.tiff>

One of the engineers in my group (punished with implementing WSRP) came

to me with the following questions and I could not find an answer for

her. I would like to know what is your opinion on this and how are you

handling this scenario.

Thanks

Alejandro

* Producer requires initCookie.

* Consumer uses more than one portlet from the producer for

  the portal page of a user.

* initCookie has been called upfront.

* performBlockingInteraction and/or getMarkup have returned a sessionID

Q1. Is there any required relationship between the cookies returned by

initCookie and the sessionID returned by the markup interface calls?

Q2. If a call returns an InvalidCookie fault, should the consumer

discard the sessionID?

Q3. If a call returns an InvalidSession fault, should the consumer call

initCookie again?

If the answer is 'no' to all the questions, then the following sections

of the spec make things more confusing:

P27/L27 "If the Producer returns an InvalidSession fault message after

returning a sessionID, the Consumer MUST NOT resupply that sessionID on

a subsequent invocation and SHOULD reinvoke the operation that caused

the fault message without any sessionID and supply any data that may

have been stored in the session."

P44/L6 "If at any time the Producer throws a fault message

(“InvalidCookie”) indicating the supplied cookies have been invalidated

at the Producer, then the Consumer MUST again invoke initCookie() and

SHOULD reprocess the invocation that caused the fault message to be

thrown and include any data that may have been stored in a session

related to a cookie"

P77/Table,Row=InvalidCookie "InvalidCookie Used only when the

environment at the Producer has timed out AND the Producer needs the

Consumer to invoke initCookie() again and resend data that may have

been stored in sessions related to a cookie."

P77/Table,Row=InvalidSession "Used only when a Producer session has

timed out AND the Producer needs the Consumer to invoke resend data

that may have been cached in the session."