# Storing model object in session in EdgeRails

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 13, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744 "2006-03-13T23:16:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/misleb)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744/1 "2006-03-13T23:16:32Z")

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I’m having a problem with sessions since upgrading to EdgeRails. Against  
certain recomendations, I’m storing the current user’s model object in  
the session. This worked fine in 1.0 and earlier, but now I am noticing  
that any time I reference the associated objects for an object stored in  
the session, the associated objects get copied into the session! For  
example, session[:user].posts will copy all of the users’s posts into  
the session. If i delete a post from the database, the session still  
returns the deleted post unless I reload the session[:user] object.

Is there anything I can do to restore the old session behavior? I don’t  
really want to rewrite my app to store the current user in a different  
way. My User model references some of user properties that are only  
stored in the session. It would be a non-trivial task to change this.  
Also, I don’t want to have to worry about reloading the user every time  
I change the database.

-matthew

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**Author:** ![misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/misleb)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744/2 "2006-03-14T01:53:46Z")

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Update:

I found a workaround. Anytime I want to use session[:user], I make a  
“deep clone” of the object and work with that unless I am actually  
updating the user object (rare). In which case I work with session  
directly and reload it as necessary.

So in my User model:

def deep\_clone  
Marshal::load(Marshal.dump(self))  
end

And in a controller before\_filter:

@user = session[:user].deep\_clone

I couldn’t use just clone() because made a new record.

-matthew

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/misleb)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744/3 "2006-03-14T02:07:52Z")

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Hello Matthew,

2006/3/13, Matthew I. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> I found a workaround. Anytime I want to use session[:user], I make a  
> “deep clone” of the object and work with that unless I am actually  
> updating the user object (rare). In which case I work with session  
> directly and reload it as necessary.

I have another solution, if you want to take a look at it:

[http://blog.teksol.info/articles/2005/10/21/model-serialization-in-session](http://blog.teksol.info/articles/2005/10/21/model-serialization-in-session)

Bye !

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**Author:** ![misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/misleb)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744/4 "2006-03-14T03:20:45Z")

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2006/3/13, Matthew I. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> Unfortunately I can’t use this because I store more than just database  
> properties in the user model. Each user has group membership  
> information which comes from LDAP (after authentication).

Change \_dump to suit:

def \_dump(ignored)  
stream = []  
stream \<\< self.id  
stream \<\< self.ldap\_params  
stream.inspect  
end

def self.\_load(stream)  
params = eval(stream)  
model = find(params[0])  
model.ldap\_params = params[1]  
model  
end

Untested code, but should work.

Bye !

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**Author:** ![misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@misleb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/misleb)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/storing-model-object-in-session-in-edgerails/54744/5 "2006-03-14T02:31:31Z")

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François Beausoleil wrote:

> I have another solution, if you want to take a look at it:
> 
> [http://blog.teksol.info/articles/2005/10/21/model-serialization-in-session](http://blog.teksol.info/articles/2005/10/21/model-serialization-in-session)

Very clever!

Unfortunately I can’t use this because I store more than just database  
properties in the user model. Each user has group membership  
information which comes from LDAP (after authentication).

-matthew