Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

[kotinkarwak]

In understanding session variables and their usage, I went ahead and setup a tabbed UI app with login facility and needed to capture some data to be used elsewhere within the application upon login. Elsewhere here to mean when I open tabs that will not have been open at initial login to the application.

The login operation sets up the following sessions

server-side event onLogin

function onLogin as v (e as p)

Session.Display01=1
Session.Display02=1
Session.Display03=1	

end function

when I open the tab named "session user", my buttons that depended on above sessions with the control similar to

show-hide (server-side)

Show/Hide expression = Session.Display01=1

This works fine upto this point. I go ahead and logout from the app, the intention here being to cancel/remove all sessions currently in place with following code

server-side event onLogout

function onLogout as v (e as p)

	SESSION.RESET()	

end function

I go back and re-open the tab named "session user", my buttons that depended on sessions variables still appear. Please note I am re-opening this tab after initially closing it as well as setting the "Auto refresh on focus" I did not expect this since variables are meant to have been deleted. After the 15 minutes session timeout, the variables are dropped as expected. What am I doing wrong here?

Please find attached zip of the test app.
session_variables.zip

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Use:

a5ws_logoutuser(session,request,response)
session.clear()


session.reset() is deprecated.

[mikeallenbrown]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

session.reset() is deprecated.

Really?? ...I had no idea! Good thing I read this post!

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

http://wiki.alphasoftware.com/Breaki...pha_Web_Server

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Actually, its' down on this page:

http://wiki.alphasoftware.com/Server...+in+Version+11

Session

Session.Timestamp
Session.Reset() - Use Session.Clear() as a replacement.

[kotinkarwak]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

at default, the logout code is

function onLogout as v (e as p)
'Fires when the user tries to logout.
'Variables in the 'e' object include:
'e.logoutSucceeded - either .t. or .f. depending on whether the user was successfully logged out or not.
'e.tmpl - definition of the TabbedUI component	

	

end function

should it only read

function onLogout as v (e as p)
'Fires when the user tries to logout.
'Variables in the 'e' object include:
'e.logoutSucceeded - either .t. or .f. depending on whether the user was successfully logged out or not.
'e.tmpl - definition of the TabbedUI component	

	a5ws_logoutuser(session,request,response)	
	session.clear()

end function

Tried this but guess I missing the point.

[kotinkarwak]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Sorry to bump this thread. I have created a screencast to show the problem described.

http://www.screencast.com/t/POndF24w0U

updated zip for application follows

session_variables.zip

[coleresources]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Kotin,

A good practice is to dim your session variables

Try

dim session.Display01 as N=1
dim session.Display02 as N=2
dim session.Display03 as N=3

[coleresources]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Kotin,

I looked at the ux_User component and the issue there is that you are using the server side show/hide expression of Session.Display00=1 for that first image control. Change it to Display01=1 and you can remove the Display00 session variable you are creating in the OnLogin event.

Also,

Once you enable the security framework, you need to configure the security settings for components and a5w pages . If you right click on your ux_User component and expand component security you will see that it is set to always deny users access to it. Once you change those security settings it will work as expected.

[kotinkarwak]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Thanks Josh,
Tried 'dimming' the variables which as you say is a good habit but issue persists.
The second issue of components not opening was driving me up the wall and knew that I would kick myself once a fresh pair of eyes sees my obvious mistake.
I think the session variables issue will mean a rework of the workflow of the proposed application for now.
Thanks again for taking time to look at this.
Onwards and upwards!!!

btw, the zip file you provided, was that a backup from within Alpha? I wasn't able to open it as an import.

[kotinkarwak]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Found this command in another thread that works

Session.Abandon()

I hope it is not too big a hammer for the wee problem at hand....

[Steve Wood]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Glad you found that session.abandon(). I confirmed that session.reset() or session.clear() do absolutely nothing when fired in that onLogout. Nether does response.redirect() but that may be intentional.

Personally I like to log my users in from a normal A5W page, redirect them to the tabbedui, then push them back to logout.a5w when they click a simple hyperlink to "logout" that redirect them to that page. I have more control using an A5W to front and back-end the tabbed ui, plus it looks nicer and is more intuitive.

[mikeallenbrown]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

I did my own testing and found the session.clear(), session.reset(), and session.abandon() all do the same thing. Like Steve I redirect users to a logout page that then runs the logout method. I used a5w_info() and each time I logged out using a different method. Maybe the methods can not be used in a tabbed ui?

[kotinkarwak]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

AA developers are aware and working on this. They did however suggest using

dim currUser as c
currUser = a5ws_getcurrentuser()
if currUser = ""
session.clear()
end if

in the tabs on onTabbedUIInitialize which accomplishes the desired result.

Steve/Mike. I would like to explore use of separate login/logout page as suggested but believe the starting point of the application for me matters. I have to have the app show the starting page with permissible content and allow for a login as opposed to showing the login page as the starting point. Is this what you have in place?

[Steve Wood]

Re: Session variables management within a tabbed UI with login/logout facility

Steve/Mike. I would like to explore use of separate login/logout page as suggested but believe the starting point of the application for me matters. I have to have the app show the starting page with permissible content and allow for a login as opposed to showing the login page as the starting point. Is this what you have in place?

Yes. Just like practically every other website on the net, you get all permissible public use content by visiting the website, and then once you login you get whatever content and resources you choose to provide to that user based on their security profile. Some developers like the TabbedUI as the "home page" but I like a "normal" web page for the public part of my website and then (for the last few years) nearly all secure content and resources inside a TabbedUI. The TabbedUI is great, but think about how many websites you visit that have that kind of structure for their public content? The answer is nearly none -- and I like my websites to look familiar to the average user. I figure someone who logged in is not such a casual user and the TabbedUI layout is fine. Also, your content in the TabbedUI (and other components) is not available to search engines, if that is important to your application.