Well, some of the liveliest discussions on the old Allaire Forums were on this very subject. It looks as if they've been archived into oblivion, unfortunately.
I don't think there is a single correct answer as to whats 'better' to do... just depends on your task and circumstances. A stable dedicated server should be fine for session var use, but that technique has feature and scalability limits. By the same token a db-based system, while arguably more capable, is going to be slower and is a relative hog on resources. I've heard people argue that storing cart data in cookies is the best way to go for ultra-hi traffic sites. There's nothing wrong with session vars or cookies, in my view... I just prefer to use each sparingly, and do without them if I can. ----------------------------------------- Matt Robertson [EMAIL PROTECTED] MSB Designs, Inc. http://mysecretbase.com ----------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael T. Tangorre" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 9:12 PM Subject: Re: sessions and shopping carts Hmmmm interesting. How do you handle poeple with cookies disabled? Would it be better to focus on the higher percentage of people with cookies turned on? I am not opposed to using a different method at all.. like I said I want to learn. Would it be better to have a table in the DB called Carts maybe that stored all the products and the cart ID?? Thanks for the input, its helping me sort things out here. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Robertson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 11:47 PM Subject: Re: sessions and shopping carts > If you're going to use sessions without cookies, you're going to have to > pass the CFID and CFTOKEN from template to template via the url. You're > also going to have to make sure that, since you are exposing the urltoken, > that you take steps to see to it that users sharing links don't also share > sessions. Maybe run a referrer test or something, and issue a new urltoken > if the referrer is blank or from another site. > > I'm not a big fan of session management unless its absolutely necessary. My > early experiences with clients hosting on shared servers taught me not to > count on it (CF failover restarts wash out all session vars). On a > dedicated, stable box the problem doesn't exist, but old habits die hard. > > There also are some things you can't do if storing cart data in memory. > Truly real-time inventory control, in particular. If you store cart data in > a db, when a user puts something in a cart you can decrement available > inventory from the db and hold the item for the consumer during the shopping > process, just like a cart in a real store. > > Just my .02. Plenty of opinions on the other side of the fence, of course > ;D > > ----------------------------------------- > Matt Robertson [EMAIL PROTECTED] > MSB Designs, Inc. http://mysecretbase.com > ----------------------------------------- > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Michael T. Tangorre" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 6:27 PM > Subject: sessions and shopping carts > > > Hey everyone. > > I am working on my first shopping cart to get the ideas downa nd in > place, and I am working towards a cookieless shopping cart, so I need to > use sessions more than ever now. I have a few concerns though. > > I was thinking of approaching it this way, but I am not experienced > enough to know what the downsides are, so I am open for suggestions and > tips. > > Mike > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
