Newbie session confusions

Rails
1

I’m totally baffled by the relation between objects and the session
and when an object is still available. It seems to me that there
should be a simple session.rb file (like the session.java file in
WebObjects).

Right now, I’m just trying to figure out how to keep an object
around, say a User object, without saving it to the db, so that I can
tell at any point whether the user is logged in. I guess the answer
is:

 session[:user] = @user

where @user contains an @logged_in property. But I have no idea when
I have to call:

  @user = session[:user]

When is @user lost such that I need to grab it from the session hash
again? When I change controllers? Methods? It seems that @user is
an instance variable of the controller class where it’s declared so
@user shouldn’t be lost between method calls within a single
controller but it is. @user seems to be acting like a local
variable, user.

It doesn’t seem like I can access the session hash from a model for
some reason. Why not?

Also, If I generate a session_controller.rb does that have any kind
of special status or is it just like any other controller I generate?

Is there any reason to run the script/generate controller command
other than to save me a minute creating files (controller, helper,
view, test, etc.)?

thanks,
russ

2

Russ McBride wrote:

  @user = session[:user]

When is @user lost such that I need to grab it from the session hash
again?

When a new request is started, e.g. in a before_filter. Each request
creates a new controller instance, you can’t use instance variables
across requests.

It doesn’t seem like I can access the session hash from a model for
some reason. Why not?

Because that violates the Model-View-Controller concept.

Also, If I generate a session_controller.rb does that have any kind
of special status or is it just like any other controller I generate?

This shouldn’t have any special status.

Is there any reason to run the script/generate controller command
other than to save me a minute creating files (controller, helper,
view, test, etc.)?

No.

3

On 1/8/06, Andreas S. [email protected] wrote:

Russ McBride wrote:

  @user = session[:user]

Also I think its a better idea to store just the user’s unique id
instead of
the whole user object.
session[:user][email protected]
I think( i am not too sure though) that session[:user]=@user will result
in
the entire instnace to be serialized using to_s and then stored on the
client’s browser which can result in lots of memory usage on the server
because of the session cache if many users are logged on.