[Zope] REQUEST parameters needed throughout website

Heimo Laukkanen huima@fountainpark.org
Mon, 09 Sep 2002 18:53:19 +0300


Subject: Re: [Zope] REQUEST parameters needed throughout website Cc: 
zope@zope.org To: "Stacy Roberts Ladnier" <Stacy.Roberts@noaa.gov> 
From: Jens Vagelpohl <jens@zope.com>

 > user's search. I DO NOT want to use the session to store the parameters
 > in because this will cause problems if a certain course of action is
 > taken.
...
 > Please understand I am very new to Zope. My company is trying to
 > transition from Java and JSP to Zope and Python. I need to make sure

Since you say:
   a) you are new to Zope
   b) you don't want to use sessions
   c) you need to do something that is exactly what sessions are for,

I'll have to ask - what are the conditions and the course of action 
that makes sessions cause problems? And whatkind of problems they are 
- and is the reason for these problems sessions or something else?

And as a reminder:

1) HTTP is a sessionless protocol - there is no such thing as a 
session in the protocoll

2) Passing variables or arguments happens usually either in the URL ( 
http://xx.xx.xx?foo=bar&dinner=spam ),as a form field or in a cookie.

3) Since passing multiple arguments all the time is stupid - systems 
for storing the data with a session key have been developed to 
practicly all the web development platform. Instead of passing all the 
arguments you just pass the session key. And then the session key 
gives you access to all your arguments. And when you are done, you can 
just remove the arguments or kill the session.

Now.  Is the session mechanism really the problem?

-huima