# Modify Session Data using session\_id **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 15, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/modify-session-data-using-session-id/155664 "2008-12-15T12:41:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/87869e/32.png) [@renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/renian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/modify-session-data-using-session-id/155664/1 "2008-12-15T12:41:12Z")
Hi, first post here. I’m enjoying getting to know rails. I have been scratching my head trying to find a way to modify data in a session by directly accessing CGI::Session. I should note, using the following code, I can successfully create a new key / value pair from the console, but not within my app. I have tried both methods below: def add\_session\_data(other\_sess\_id, new\_data) a = CGI::Session::ActiveRecordStore::Session.find\_by\_session\_id(other\_sess\_id) a.data[:test] = new\_data a.save end def add\_session\_data(other\_sess\_id, new\_data) cgi = CGI.new(“html4”) a = CGI::Session.new(cgi, ‘database\_manager’ =\> CGI::Session::ActiveRecordStore, ‘session\_id’ =\> other\_sess\_id) a[:test] = new\_data a.close end ---
**Author:** ![renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/87869e/32.png) [@renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/renian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/modify-session-data-using-session-id/155664/2 "2008-12-15T13:24:48Z")
Hi, Rather than accessing a base methods directly, you can access some class methods like ‘process\_cgi’ to solve you pbm better I think. Try > **[ActionController::Base](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Base.html#M000523)** > > Action Controllers are the core of a web request in Rails. They are made up of one or more actions that are executed on request and then either it renders a template or redirects to another action. this one and post here whether it helps you or not. I am also interested in knowing this. Thanks, Sadeesh On Dec 15, 4:41 pm, Jeff V. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/87869e/32.png) [@renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/renian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/modify-session-data-using-session-id/155664/3 "2008-12-16T01:15:08Z")
Sadeesh Viswanthan wrote: > Hi, > Rather than accessing a base methods directly, you can access some > class methods like ‘process\_cgi’ to solve you pbm better I think. Try > [ActionController::Base](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Base.html#M000523) > this one and post here whether it helps you or not. I am also > interested in knowing this. > > Thanks, > Sadeesh > > On Dec 15, 4:41�pm, Jeff V. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Thanks for the reply. I played around with process\_cgi and determined it wouldn’t work for this application. Further, I went into the code for action\_controller to see how session data is saved. I went as far as writing my own method that repeats the exact way session data is saved in Action Controller, but no dice. What I think is happening, is when a request is made by the client, it grabs the current session data for a given session\_id, THEN executes application code (including updating in memory any changes to the session data, THEN updates the database. When we force changes to the session (by selecting sessions.data by session\_id, modifying, and saving) INSIDE of a request routine, the data changes just fine, but is overwritten at the end of the request. I think. If anybody has an idea to access whatever is the temporary store for the session when it gets changed during a request, I’d love to figure this out. ---
**Author:** ![renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/87869e/32.png) [@renian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/renian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/modify-session-data-using-session-id/155664/4 "2008-12-16T02:08:14Z")
I just realized that since the objective is to modify another user’s session data (as opposed to my own), the code I am using will work. There’s one caveat, however, and someone correct me if I’m wrong: If the user who’s session data we are changing makes a request at the exact same time as our user who is modifying data, there’s a chance that he will overwrite our changes, and there is no easy way to detect this. Or is this not true in a single-threaded environment? That being said, I’m also slightly embarrassed to post the following code, I have a feeling there’s a much better way to do this. But here goes: @@connection ||= ActiveRecord::Base.connection record = @@connection.select\_one(“SELECT \* FROM sessions WHERE session\_id = ‘#{other\_sess\_id}’”) a = record[‘data’] b = Marshal.load(ActiveSupport::Base64.decode64(a)) #demarshal and load session into b b[:testdata] = ‘data here’ c = ActiveSupport::Base64.encode64(Marshal.dump(b)) #marshal @@connection.update(“UPDATE sessions SET data = ‘#{c}’ WHERE session\_id = ‘#{other\_sess\_id}’”) #save to db