Another session.variable -> dialog thread

[tdietrich]

I'm having a problem passing a session variable from an a5w page to a dialog control.

An overview of what I'm trying to accomplish: The user is accessing a "thank you" page on the site via a link in an email. The link is a filtered/personalized URL and is bascally formatted as: mywebsite.com?Tom1234. The page is linked to a table with three field in it; the filter, the person's first name and a filename. The user reads the thank you note and clicks a dialog button to download/open a specific personalized brochure.

I have declared the session variable at the top of the a5w page. I successfuly performed a lookup to get the values I need from the table; the person's first name shows up just like it's supposed to. When I click the button, the download control/dialog shows up but the file name isn't there, just the .pdf. If I "hard" code the filenames in the control, it works perfectly. I've passed info from grids to dialogs in this same manner several times without any problems; the only difference was that I was passing info between controls and now it's from an a5w page to a control.

I have spent way more time on this than I care to admit and I'm guessing (hoping) that there is a simple solution.

Thanks,
Tom

[Steve Wood]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

You'd have to provide the code you are using to make all this work else we have have nothing to go on. In the URL "mywebsite.com?Tom1234" you have not set a value for any variable because your query string does not meet the format var=value, although maybe you are parsing the string in the target A5W page.

[ColinJD]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

isn't there, just the .pdf.

I believe this is the smoking gun of your post.
It would appear that the session variable has either been blanked out or is actually out of scope.
So, Do you have anywhere where the session variable is re"initiated" back to ""Blank,
If its a scope type issue, the best way would be a quick redesign,
Remember the session variables are on the server not the client, which only has images of them.
Post the variables via a URL, Send them back to a server page and then read them from there.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

To be clear, you don't "pass a session variable" at all. Once you create a session variable, it exists until deleted. Once you populate a session variable with a value, that value persists until changed, or the variable is deleted. You don't "pass it" in a URL or by any other means, it just exists across all pages, all components, everywhere without any additional effort.

So if, when you want to use the value in the session variable, the value is blank, then either you blanked it out or did not set a value in the first place.

If you try to use a session variable and the variable does not exist (was not created or was deleted, or perhaps is of the wrong type) then the xbasic script will produce an error visible in the browser as a 500 error.

So whatever method you are using to create and populate your session variable needs to be tested. Test - is the method actually doing what you expect? Test - isolate the method you are using to create and populate your session variable. Take everything else out of play, is that method working? If not, determine if your method is flawed and change the method. Or, if it is a bug, isolate and provide a test case HERE for evaluation and/or for a bug report to Alpha.

[tdietrich]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

:o:o:o

I had posted that I had it solved but I was mistaken. I'll get back with more detail and code.

[tdietrich]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

I'm going to start with baby steps because I'm having more than just variable issues. I am trying to download a pdf from the download directory which is inside my webroot directory. I am using pre-determined values at this point and will add variables later. I am trying to download a file named Stacey6051.pdf, which appears to download, but it is not a the correct file and won't open with acrobat. When I open it with a text editor, it is the html source for the page I am on. I'm guessing that it has to do with my path but I'm not sure about anything at this point.

I am using the following code:

dim vFilename as c
dim vPath as C

'Determine which file to send.
'vFilename = session.NewPurl + ".pdf" '<--Not using yet
vFilename = "Stacey6051.pdf"
vPath  = "[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\download"

'Tell the browser what type of file is being sent.
response.mime_type = resolve_mime_type("PDF")

'Prompt the user to save the file.
response.add_header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=" + vFilename)

'Send the file.
'  a5_default_path + fn would look for the specified file in the same folder as this A5W page.
'  You would adjust this to match your path as needed.

?file.to_blob(vPath + chr(92) + vFilename)

[ColinJD]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

When I open it with a text editor, it is the html source for the page I am on.

You don't have the code showing which generates the PDF.
-
Just as a check I suggest going with windows explorer where you believe the PDF is being saved and check, a.) is the PDF there. b.) is it actually a PDF.
- Reason you can actually generate a HTML report similar to a PDF.
-
Can you please post a dollop of the code where you declare and initiate session.NewPurl

[tdietrich]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

The PDF is created offline. It is an actual PDF; I can open it on the web server. I have a copy of it in the root as well as the download folder. The variable doesn't seem to be the issue; I put a text box on the dialog and initialized the value as session.NewPurl and it shows up.

Here is the code where I declare the session variable; it is on the a5w page where the dialog resides.

<%a5
dim SHARED t1 as P
dim qry as P
dim nrecs as N

dim session.NewPurl as C 

dim  session.First as C
dim session.ID as C

session.NewPurl = Request.Query_String

t1=table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\inquiry")
	query.description = ""
	query.order = ""
	query.filter = "Purl='"+session.NewPurl+"'"
	query.options = ""
	qry = t1.query_create()
	nrecs = qry.records_get()
	if nrecs >0 Then
		session.First = t1.First
		session.ID = t1.Id_no
	end if	
t1.close()
%>

[ColinJD]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

dim session.NewPurl as C 

dim  session.First as C
dim session.ID as C

I'm not 100% sure about this,
But I believe as the session already exists, you cannot redeclare the session or the dot.session variables.
-
You initialize the variable simply by doing this

session.NewPurl = ""
session.First = ""
session.ID = ""

thus the initialization also works as an informal declaration to the session.

I don't know if this will solve your problem.

[tdietrich]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

That makes sense but I have to declare the variables because the user is accessing the page by clicking on a link in an email; this is a new session. The URL is something like mywebsite.com?Tom1234; I am using the request.query_string function to parse the URL and place it in the variable session.NewPurl.

dim session.NewPurl as C 

dim session.First as C
dim session.ID as C

[COLOR="red"]session.NewPurl = Request.Query_String[/COLOR]

[ColinJD]

Re: Another session.variable -> dialog thread

Just Clarifying
Ok The Request.Query_String should be holding the GET string
eg user=foo&file=bar&foobaa=fish or whatever
This is generataed when the user makes the request from the email to the server... Next the client/browser downloads the ApplicationServer generated content from the host/Server.
So if you placed this at the top of your page

<%a5
session.NewPurl = Request.Query_String
?session.NewPurl
%>

Probably right at the top of your page the applicationServer will write
foo&file=bar&foobaa=fish

followed by the rest of your page.
--
If this is the case then session.NewPurl will retain that value until the session expires or the session variable is given a new value.
--

[tdietrich]

Re: Another session.variable -&gt; dialog thread

Thanks for all of your help! I have no idea what was causing my problem but I did get it fixed... sort of*. I ended up putting a submit button right on the a5w page and bypassed the dialog altogether. My guess is that that really had nothing to do with solving the problem but I did learn some new tricks because of it. I'm guessing I had some syntax issue that I didn't see before.

*The "sort of" that I was referring to is that while I can download the PDF, it is damaged. When I opened it with a text editor, it had an HTML tag on the first line. I'll start another thread on that issue unless I can find something in the forums.

Thanks again!

Tom

[tdietrich]

Re: Another session.variable -&gt; dialog thread

OK... when trying to figure out my PDF error issue, I came across this helpful little nugget in the help files.

[SIZE="4"]RESOLVE_MIME_TYPE()[/SIZE]

Supported By

Alpha Five Version 7 and Above

Limitations

[COLOR="red"][SIZE="4"]RESOLVE_MIME_TYPE() can only be used in an A5W page.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

That might have been good information to know. If only I'd stumbled across that three days ago...