NAME

App::Session::HTMLHidden - a session whose state is maintained across HTML requests by being embedded in an HTML <input type="hidden"> tag.

SYNOPSIS

   # ... official way to get a Session object ...
   use App;
   $session = App->session();
   $session = $session->session();   # get the session

   # any of the following named parameters may be specified
   $session = $session->session(
   );

   # ... alternative way (used internally) ...
   use App::Session::HTMLHidden;
   $session = App::Session->new();

DESCRIPTION

A Session class models the sequence of events associated with a use of the system. These events may occur in different processes. Yet the accumulated state of the session needs to be propagated from one process to the next.

This Session::HTMLHidden maintains its state across HTML requests by being embedded in an HTML <input type="hidden"> tag. As a result, it requires no server-side storage, so the sessions never need to time out.

Constructor Methods:

new()

The constructor is inherited from App::Service.

Public Methods:

get_session_id()

The get_session_id() returns the session_id of this particular session. This session_id is unique for all time. If a session_id does not yet exist, one will be created. The session_id is only created when first requested, and not when the session is instantiated.

    * Signature: $session_id = $session->get_session_id();
    * Param:  void
    * Return: $session_id      string
    * Throws: <none>
    * Since:  0.01

    Sample Usage: 

    $session->get_session_id();

html()

The html() method ...

    * Signature: $html = $session->html();
    * Param:  void
    * Return: $html      string
    * Throws: <none>
    * Since:  0.01

    Sample Usage: 

    $session->html();

Protected Methods:

The following methods are intended to be called by subclasses of the current class.

create()

The create() method is used to create the Perl structure that will be blessed into the class and returned by the constructor.

    * Signature: $ref = App::Reference->create($hashref)
    * Param:     $hashref            {}
    * Return:    $ref                ref
    * Throws:    App::Exception
    * Since:     0.01

    Sample Usage:

init()

The init() method is called from within the constructor.

    * Signature: init($named)
    * Param:     $named        {}    [in]
    * Return:    void
    * Throws:    App::Exception
    * Since:     0.01

    Sample Usage: 

    $ref->init($args);

The init() method looks at the CGI variables in the request and restores the session state information from the variable named "app.sessiondata" (and "app.sessiondata[2..n]").

When the values of these variables are concatenated, they form a Base64-encoded, gzipped, frozen multi-level hash of session state data. To retrieve the state data, the text is therefore decoded, gunzipped, and thawed (a la Storable).

TODO: encrypt and MAC