Passing Objects via QueryString - asp.net

Question

I have object A which in turn has a property of type Object B
Class A
property x as Object B
End Class
On my ASP.NET page when I select a gridview item which maps to an object of type A I serialize the object onto the QueryString and pass it to the next page.
However I run into problems if property x actually has some value as it looks like I exceed the QueryString capacity length of 4k (although I didn't think the objects were that large)
I have already considered the following approaches to do this
Session Variables
Approach not used as I have read that this is bad practice.
Using a unique key for the object and retrieving it on the next page.
Approach not used as the objects do not map to a single instance in a table, they arte composed of data from different databases.
So I guess my question is two fold
Is it worth using GKZip to compress the querystring further (is this possible??)
What other methods would people suggest to do this?

Answer 1

If displaying the url of the next page in the browser does not matter, you could use the context.items collection.
context.items.add("keyA", objectA)
server.transfer("nextPage.aspx")
Then on the next page:
public sub page_load(...)
dim objectA as A = ctype(context.items("keyA"), objectA)
dim objectB as B = objectA.B
end sub
One reason to use this is if you want the users to believe that the next page is really a part of the first page. To them, it only appears as if a PostBack has occurred.
Also, you don't really need a unique key using this approach if the only way to use "next page" is if you first came from "first page". The scope for the context items collections is specific to just this particular request.
I agree with the other posters who mentioned that serialized objects on the querystring is a much worse evil than using session state. If you do use session state, just remember to clear the key you use immediately after using it.

Answer 2

I don't understand why you wouldn't use session state but...
Option 1: Viewstate
Option 2: Form parameters instead of querystring
But also be aware that you do not get the same object back when you serialize/deserialize. You get a new object initialized with the values of the original that were serialized out. You're going to end up with two of the object.
EDIT: You can store values in viewstate using the same syntax as Session state
ViewState["key"] = val;
The value has to be serializeable though.

Answer 3

While storing objects in session might be considered bad practice, it's lightyears better than passing them via serialized querystrings.
Back in classic asp, storing objects in session was considered bad practice because you created thread-affinity, and you also limited your ability to scale the site by adding other web servers. This is no longer a problem with asp.net (as long as you use an external stateserver).
There are other reasons to avoid session variables, but in your case I think that's the way to go.
Another option is to combine the 2 pages that need access to this object into one page, using panels to hide and display the needed "sub-pages" and use viewstate to store the object.

Answer 4

I don't think passing it in the query string, or storing it in the session, is a good idea.
You need one of the following:
a) A caching layer. Something like Microsoft Velocity would work, but I doubt you need something on that scale.
b) Put the keys to each object in the databases that you need in the query string and retrieve them the next time around. (E.g. myurl.com/mypage.aspx?db1objectkey=123&db2objectkey=345&db3objectkey=456)

Answer 5

Using session state seems like the most practical way to do this, its exactly what its designed for.

Answer 6

Cache is probably not the answer here either. As Telos mentioned, I'm not sure why you're not considering session.
If you have a page that depends on this data being available, then you just throw a guard clause in the page load...
public void Page_Load()
{
if(!IsPostBack)
{
const string key = "FunkyObject";
if(Session[key] == null)
Response.Redirect("firstStep.aspx");
var obj = (FunkyObject)Session[key];
DoSomething(obj);
}
}
If session is absolutely out of the quesiton, then you'll have to re-materialize this object on the other page. Just send the unique identifier in the querystring so you can pull it back again.

Answer 7

Session isn't always available. For instance when XSS (cross-site-scripting) security settings on IE prevent the storage of third-party cookies. If your site is being called within an IFrame from a site that's not your DNS domain, your cookies are going to be blocked by default. No cookies = no session.
Another example is where you have to pass control to another website that will make the callback to your site as a pure URL, not a post. In this case you have to store your session parameters in a querystring parameter, something that's tough to do given the 4k size constraint and URL encoding, not to mention encryption, etc.
The issue is that most of the built-in serialisation methods are pretty verbose, thus one has to resort to a roll-your-own method, probably using reflection.
Another reason for not using sessions is simply to give a better user experience; sessions get cleared after N minutes and when the server restarts. OK, in this case a viewstate is preferable, but sometimes it's not possible to use a form. OK, one could rely on JavaScript to do a postback, but again, that's not always possible.
These are the problems I'm currently coding around.

Answer 8

Here is what I do:
Page1.aspx - Add a public property of an instance of my object. Add a button (Button1) with the PostBackURL property set to ~/Page2.aspx
Private _RP as ReportParameters
Public ReadOnly Property ReportParams() as ReportParameters
Get
Return _RP
End Get
End Property
Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
_RP = New ReportParameters
_RP.Name = "Report 1"
_RP.Param = "42"
End Sub
Now, on the second page, Page2.aspx add the following to the Markup at the top of the page under the first directive:
<%# PreviousPageType VirtualPath="~/Default.aspx" %>
Then for the Page_Load in the code behind for Page2.aspx, add the following
If Not Page.PreviousPage is Nothing Then
Response.write (PreviousPage.ReportParams.Name & " " & PreviousPage.ReportParams.Param)
End If

Answer 9

Faced with a similar situation what I did, is to XML serialize the object and pass it around as query string parameter. The difficulty with this approach was that despite encoding, the receiving form throws exception saying "potentially dangerous request...". The way I got around was to encrypt the serialized object and then encode to pass it around as query string parameter. Which in turn made the query string tamper proof (bonus wandering into the HMAC territory)!
FormA XML serializes an object > encrypts the serialized string > encode > pass as query string to FormB FormB decrypts the query parameter value (as request.querystring decodes also) > deserialize the resulting XML string to object using XmlSerializer.
I can share my VB.NET code upon request to howIdidit-at-applecart-dot-net