cookies - use session id? 1

[philote]

I'm creating a shopping cart web app using perl and mysql. I want it to be like most other carts on the web where users can click on items to add them to their cart. I want these items to be in their cart only for the lenght of their current session. What's the best way to do this. I know I can just store the items in their cart as cookies but I also read that I could instead just store a unique session id for them as a cookie and store their items in the database. I think I could do the cookie method but how would I go about implementing session id's? Specifically, how would I create them uniquely and how would I know when their sesssion's over so I could delete their items from the database?

Kevin
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[siberian]

Check out CGI::Session, it will allow you to manage this sort of thing very easily.

http://search.cpan.org/~sherzodr/CGI-Session-3.95/Session.pm

As for session expiration, you can reset the cookie on every request ( yuck! ) and that would reset the length of time their session will be alive.

The far better method is to check a time variable in their session on each request and if its to old log them out. if its acceptable, update that time and continue.

 

[philote]

Awesome! That seems to be exactly what I was looking for.

What I was most concerned about was my database of session information growing to a large size because the user's session would expire and my script wouldn't know to delete the session information. But it looks like CGI::Session can somehow expire the session after a set period of time and 'hopefully' clear the database records for that session.

Kevin
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[siberian]

I don't think CGI:Session auto-clears the DB ( I may be wrong, I've never used it specifically ) but if it doesn't do what I usually do. In your sessions table add a 'TIMESTAMP' column. This will update on every session update. You can then delete the data after a defined period of inactivity.

Good luck!

 

[philote]

Great idea, thanks!

Kevin
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[philote]

Does CGI::Session automatically set the client's session cookie or do I have to do this in cgi.pm's header function? And if I don't have to set it, I'd assume I'd at least have to create the session before calling header(), right?

siberian, do you have a short example on how to use CGI::Session? Maybe that'll answer my current question and any future questions I'm sure I'll have.

Thanks!

Kevin
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[siberian]

man CGI::Session

That should answer all your questions.

I never have used it, I use Apache::Session under mod_perl.

 

[philote]

Thanks anyway. I had already looked at all the docs I could find, none of which answered my question. I'll do some more searching and experimenting. I AM running Apache and mod_perl, so maybe I'll check out Apache::Session as well.

Kevin
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[siberian]

Oh yes, if you are running modperl Apache::Session is the only way to go!

Apache session does cookie management etc for you. Its great.