Asp.net System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session null in global.asax - asp.net

I have a custom security principal object which I set in the global.asax for the current thread and all is well, no problems normally.
However, I'm just adding a dynamic image feature by having a page serve up the image and whenever that dynamic image page is loaded the System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session is null in global.asax which prevents me from setting the security principal as normal and cascading problems from that point onwards.
Normally the Session is null in global.asax only once during a session at the start when the user logs in, afterwards it's always available with this single exception.
The dynamic image page is loaded when the browser comes across an image tage in the original page i.e.
I'm guessing that this is some aspect of the fact that the browser is requesting that page without sending some credentials with it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John,
I'm assuming you're using an ashx handler for the handler. If so, be sure to derive from IRequiresSessionState for example:
public class Images : IHttpHandler, System.Web.SessionState.IRequiresSessionState
{ }
If you're not using an ashx can you describe what you mean by dynamic image page?
Josh

in Global.asax.cs Session_Start() and Session_End() you need to use "this.Session" !!
The reason for this is that HttpContext is only available when there is a request that is being processed. That is why you are getting a NULL on HttpContext.Current.Session!
From Microsoft website:
"HttpContext Class: Encapsulates all HTTP-specific information about an individual HTTP request."
But don't feel bad ... i fell for this one too! :)

Session has nothing to do with being logged in or not.
What event are you overriding when you want access to the session? Session isn't available until AcquireRequestState has been fired.
For more information, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9ysfzy8h.aspx

yes you are right This happens because the object dependancy might conficts in case of other page transferance parallel which may break down the firewall between sessions

Related

Access HttpContext.Current.Session in Nancy Module

I've read a lot of answers saying to just use the built-in Nancy Session/User object, but this isn't an option in my case.
Using WCF I was able to access the ASP.Net Session["SomethingStuffedIntoSessionFromAWebForm"] by enabling aspNetCompatibilityEnabled in the web.config (other stuff had to been done too, probably), but I can't seem to figure out how to get a handle on the System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session (or anything else in the current context) from within a Nancy module.
My 1st thought was to inject it in the bootstrapper but I can't even get a handle on the System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session there either. Any ideas?
Edit
I ended up just stuffing an encrypted version of my desired session object into a cookie upstream and checking/validating against it in the module's BeforePipeline... not too crazy about this approach, but it suits my needs for now.
As far as I can tell, when a Nancy module handles a request, it bypasses the Asp.Net pipeline, so while I actually do have access to HttpContext.Current, Session is not populated.
Inherit IRequiresSessionState to enable Asp.net Session.
public class NancyAspHttpRequestHandler
: NancyHttpRequestHandler, IRequiresSessionState
{
}
and use NancyAspHttpRequestHandler in handler registration, this can be possible using Nancy.AspNet hosting.
This will solve the problem

friendly URL to open member page

Working in asp.net, in VB I want a site visitor to be able to see a Member's page by going to i.e. almosbarn.com/tom. I need to extract the "tom" part, look it up in the database, then open tom's webpage. The lookup, database, and view page parts work. My problem is I've tried setting it up in the global.asax application_start to get the "tom" segment but I get the error "request is not available in this context". My code to capture it in the global.aspx application_start is:
Dim vMbrID = Httpcontext.Current.Request.URL.Segments.Last()
This works and gives me "tom" on a test page, but not the global.aspx page, where I get the error.
The Application_Start event is fired when an HttpApplication instance is first created. At this point, the request information is not available; there might not even be a request in progress.
You want your code to fire at the start of a request, so move it to the Application_BeginRequest event.
What you want to do is set up routing in your global.asax to let you handle these kinds of situations.
MSDN on routing
MSDN walkthrough on routing

Nhibernate with Asp.net WebForms - Session per Request

I am using an HttpModule to open a session that span each request and it works great with lazy loading and everything.
My concern is that since I open a new session per request (and stores it in HttpContext.Current.Items) it opens a session for every request even request including request for .css files and images.
I recall reading that session creation is a pretty lightwheigt operation (dont know about transactions though) but anyway it seems unnecessary to open a session for a requests for a .css file?
Anyone got some ideas about this, is it a problem and/or am I doing something stupid?
Thanks in advance
only create the session object if the file type is .aspx or .ashx:
switch (context.Request.CurrentExecutionFilePathExtension.ToLower())
{
case ".aspx":
case ".ashx":
context.Items[ContextKey] = CreateMySession();
break;
}
or encapsulate session creation inside a property getter, and clean-up checks whether session != null

AJAX Partial Rendering issues for the default page in IIS 7 when using custom http module

The problem
When I try to make a AJAX partial update request (using the UpdatePanel control) from the default page of an IIS7 web site, it fails- instead of returning the html to be updated, it returns the entire page, which then causes the MS AJAX Javascript to throw a parsing shit-fit.
The suspected cause
I have narrowed the cause down to two issues- making an AJAX request to the default page when I have a certain custom http module registered. A partial rendering request to http://localhost will fail, but a partial rendering request to http://localhost/default.aspx will work fine.
Also, If i remove the following line in my custom HttpModule:
_application.PreRequestHandlerExecute += OnPreRequestHandlerExecute;
The AJAX partial render will work correctly. Wierd huh?
Another wierd thing...
If I look at trace.axd, I can see that when a partial rendering request fails, two POST requests are logged for the one partial rendering request- one where the default.aspx page executes successfully (trace information such as page_load is logged) but no content is produced and a second that doesn't seem to actually execute (no trace information is logged) but produces content (HTTP_CONTENT_LENGTH is greater than 0).
Please help!
If anyone with a good knowledge of HTTP modules or the MS AJAX Http module could explain why this is occuring I would be very grateful. As it is, the obvious work arround is to just redirect to default.aspx if the request url is "/" but I would really like to understand why this is occurring.
First of all PreRequestHandlerExecute is exactly before HTTP handler executes.
Second for hosting websites with HttpModules under IIS7 it is better that we run website in integrated pipeline mode, and also we have to move HttpModules tag in web.config to system.webServer module section.
If for example you change the handler in PreRequestHandlerExecute like this:
void context_PreRequestHandlerExecute(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HttpApplication application = (HttpApplication)sender;
HttpContext context = application.Context;
if( something-happened )
context.Handler = null;
}
The result would be exactly as you said.
Setting handler to any thing else but its default, means that ASP.Net is not responsible for current request.
Note that each request only can have one HttpHandler.

ASP.NET global events

which event is the most suitable to check for Session expired? i'm trying to trap each server request, and if Session is null, redirect to a different page.
You can determine if a new session is being created by hooking Session_OnStart - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178583(VS.80).aspx
You can handle the Session_OnStart
event by adding a subroutine named
Session_OnStart to the Global.asax
file. The Session_OnStart subroutine
is run at the beginning of a request
if the request begins a new session. A
new session will be started if a
request is made that does not contain
a SessionID value or if the SessionID
property contained in the request
references a session that has expired.
This will tell you effectively when a new session is being created, regardless of if the user just arrived or the session had expired.
It would be hard to reliably differentiate between both scenarios. I guess you could try to get a hold a the session id in the either the session cookie or embedded in the url (cookieless), but you would need to check it before getting to the above event, and later check whether the request had a session id originally. Check if you can get to the session id in the cookieless version, because it is stripped out of the urls asp.net gives you (not sure if early in the lifecycle you get to see it).
This is often best achieved by using a base Page class for all otehr classes, and implementing this in the Page_Load method.
Use BasePage class, which inherits from Page class. Let every aspx page inherits that BasePage class. In BasePage class, override OnInit event, in which you can check for Session or Cookie, and redirect user to login page (for example).
I use this approach for all mine webforms apps, because it's easy to implement and use.

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