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Martin Cooper
Tumbleweed Communications
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Duffey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2000 6:04 PM
Subject: Multiple contexts sharing data?
> Sorry this is a bit off topic, but I am not aware of a servlet-interest
> mailing list (if there is one..please direct me to it).
>
> I happen to have a rather odd need to allow separate web apps (Servlet 2.2
> specifically) to share one particular object. On our site our users can be
> in one of 3 possible contexts, lets say A, B or C. But on our admin site,
we
> need to allow our admin folks access to all 3 context at the same time.
> Normally I was doing this by having them log into each one via a context
of
> /A/login, /B/login and /C/login, each time creating the context (web app)
> and the session object needed to confirm they are logged in. What I am
> trying to achieve is the ability to use a single login entry point that
> creates all 3 contexts at one time, so that when they switch between any
of
> the three, the login process in not required again..the /A, /B and /C
> sessions for that client already exist. I will eventually need this
> functionality for our main site as well. Part of this reasoning is due to
> using one browser to access all 3 contexts. Because of the use of cookies,
> if you open up MSIE and access the same www page using A, B or C, under
one
> context, it messes things up. You log in to A in one window, and B in
> another, then navigate around B a bit. When you go back to A, because the
> one client has one session existing on the server, and the session data
says
> "I am in B" since that is where they last did something, when the user
goes
> to the window with A logged in, and clicks a link..on the server its
stored
> them as being on B, so the page that comes back now is B. Its a bit
> confusing. We use colors on our site. A = orange. B = green and C = blue.
> Imagine logging in to A and getting an Orange screen of links. Then you
log
> in to B in a different window and see green background with links. Click
> around a bit and everything remains Green. Now go back to the A (orange)
> browser window and click. The page you get back now has Green background
and
> links because the session variable used to track your location indicates
you
> are in B instead of A.
>
> To solve this, at least for our Admin folks, by moving to Servlet 2.2 I
can
> separate each session into 3 by using the web-app setup with separate
> contexts. So I decided I would have a single "index" page that lists all
the
> links. On that page they click A, B or C and it changes that one pages
color
> to orange, green or blue respecitively and on the server a session is
> created that stores the location they are in. To allow two or more windows
> to work with A, B and C all at the same time (for example, they are
pulling
> up a clients info which is stored in each of the types (A, B and C) and
they
> need all 3 viewable at one time ) I use 3 separate contexts. Now comes the
> problem of logging in. When the user firsts logs in, a session is created
> not in A, B or C, but in the "root" app. But the links on that main page
> have a /A /B or /C as part of them to indicate the context to use (to
allow
> sessions to exist for one client in more than one section (A, B or C) for
> this link. The problem is that during the login process I need a way to
> create the "main" session (which works now) as well as the /A, /B and /C
> contexts session objects all at one time. What I have so far is inside the
> login method, after login is successful, I create 3 URL objects, one to
/A,
> /B and /C. Each one points to a special servlet so the path is like
> http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/A/CreatContextServlet/ and so on with A becoming B
> and C. Thus, it sort of "fakes" the login process to A, B and C so that
when
> an admin user goes to do something in A and B, the contexts are already
> created and the object that I use to determine if a user is an "admin"
> capable person (and also used to see if they are logged in or not) exists.
> The problem I am having now is how to pass an object to each of these
> contexts. The MAIN context is created (again..its not A, B or C..but a 4th
> one..the MAIN one). When the admin user logs in, the ClientSession object
is
> created and stored in the http session of the root app. I want to create
the
> 3 contexts AND put this object in all 3 of these contexts sessions so that
> the code that checks on every page if the user is an Admin person or not,
> functions properly.
>
> Phew! This is hard to explain. I hope I have made some progress in making
it
> easy enough to understand. I am sorry for the lengthy repeated explanation
> but I really can't explain it any other way.
>
> Worst case scenario, I can just call the Login process on all 3 contexts
> from within the main login method (using URL objects) passing to the login
> process the login name and password. I would rather not do that because it
> requires 3 more hits to the database, but if that is what it takes..that
is
> what I'll do.
>
> Lastly, can anyone explain the use of URL and URLConnection. I read the
API
> but I haven't found any resources that explain how to use it. I will play
> with it a bit more. So far I just do a URL url = new
> URL("http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/A/CreatContext"); url.openConnection(); and
> thats it. Do I need to close the connection? Do I have to call anything
else
> to "activate" the CreateContext servlet for A, B and C?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
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