sharing user info w/ a WebRequest ?

[matt]

hello,

i am having trouble doing something. when a user triggers a certain
event in my app, i need to initiate another web request to one of my
other webpages, programmatically. currently, i do this via a WebRequest
-- i attach the default credentials and get the response stream. that
part works. like so:

WebRequest request = HttpWebRequest.Create(reportAspxURL);
request.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();

//Read response to a string
Stream stream = response.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(stream);

string html = sr.ReadToEnd();

//insert html into my PDF-maker
ConvertToPDF(html);

what *doesnt* work, is trying to share user info between the user's
session in my app, and the web request (in this case, to the report
ASPX page). i need to pass some user info into the report-generating
ASPX. i understand that the Session objects cannot be shared, because
WebRequest (presumably) opens a new session.

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.


or is there perhaps a better way to do this? since its an
apppage-to-apppage call w/i the same project, can i programmatically
load up the 2nd page, rather than do a WebRequest?


thanks!
matt

 

[matt]

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.

btw, heres the abstract helper-class code i use to set/get cookie info:

(first page, store some user value)

//create cookie
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(cookieName);

context.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);

//optional cookie persist
if (rememberMe == true)
context.Response.Cookies[cookieName].Expires =
DateTime.Now.AddMonths(1);

//(called from elsewhere) add to cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request.Cookies[cookieName];
cookie.Values[itemName] = itemValue;
context.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);


(second page, retrieve some user value)

//get from cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request.Cookies[cookieName];

if (cookie != null)
value = cookie.Values[itemName];


....like i mentioned, that works for my cross-virtual-directory pages.
but it doesnt seem to work when trying to retrieve cookie data from the
WebRequest .aspx page (same project/virtual-directory).


thanks!
matt

 

[Guest]

Matt,
at first reading it seems to me that you aren't "OOP-ifying" your code. If
some other page has a method that you need to call from your current page,
that method should be in a separate class library that your first page can
reference and use, without having to resort to a WebRequest. If you need
session, provide it with a reference to System.Web and / or pass in the
HttpContext.Current property to the method.
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.

btw, heres the abstract helper-class code i use to set/get cookie info:

(first page, store some user value)

//create cookie
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(cookieName);

context.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);

//optional cookie persist
if (rememberMe == true)
context.Response.Cookies[cookieName].Expires =
DateTime.Now.AddMonths(1);

//(called from elsewhere) add to cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request.Cookies[cookieName];
cookie.Values[itemName] = itemValue;
context.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);


(second page, retrieve some user value)

//get from cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request.Cookies[cookieName];

if (cookie != null)
value = cookie.Values[itemName];


....like i mentioned, that works for my cross-virtual-directory pages.
but it doesnt seem to work when trying to retrieve cookie data from the
WebRequest .aspx page (same project/virtual-directory).


thanks!
matt

 

[matt]

peter,

often do i placed shared methods into common libraries. however that
isnt quite the situation here.


i have many .ASPX pages that produce reports, via DataRepeaters -- each
repeater uses a unique and sometimes complex HTML table to display the
results. in each report page, the Page_Load retrieves data & binds it
to that page's repeater (it does so w/ some user preferences as far as
the query goes).

now i need a PDF version for some of these reports. since i can pass in
HTML into a PDF-component, it seemed the thing to do was extract the
rendered HTML of a given report, and plop it into the PDF.

that seems sound, but the only problem is passing in the user's
preferences (stored in session) to the report -- no problem when they
were viewing the report as a webpage. problem when im trying to do a
WebRequest on the report.


i could certainly re-use the same data-generating method, as it is
indeed in a library. however, the DataRepeaters define HTML table at
design time, and it would seem trickier to learn how to produce said
table+repeaters at runtime, than it would be to figure out how to pass
state (user prefs) to these pages, and suck up their final HTML.


matt

 

[Guest]

Try using Cache instead of Session, but with a unique key such as the
sessionid, and pass that on the querystring.
Peter

 

[bruce barker \(sqlwork.com\)]

this won't work. access to session is serialized, so only one request (page)
can access the same session at a time. if you page calls another, that page
can not acces session until the calling page exits.

you could store your user info in a database (or application) and pass an id
to the url.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[matt]

or is there perhaps a better way to do this? since its an
apppage-to-apppage call w/i the same project, can i programmatically
load up the 2nd page, rather than do a WebRequest?

there was indeed a better way to do this. instead of a WebRequest
(useful for out-of-site grabs), use an Execute -- like so:

StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
Server.Execute(""somePage.aspx", writer);

string bodyHTML = writer.ToString();

....and that grabs it. more, it also maintains state between the two!
excellent!


thanks,
matt