175 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
175 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
===================
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How to use sessions
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===================
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Django provides full support for anonymous sessions. The session framework lets
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you store and retrieve arbitrary data on a per-site-visitor basis. It stores
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data on the server side and abstracts the sending and receiving of cookies.
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Cookies contain a session ID -- not the data itself.
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Enabling sessions
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=================
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Session functionality is enabled by default.
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You can turn session functionality on and off by editing the
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``MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES`` setting. To activate sessions, make sure
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``MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES`` contains ``"django.middleware.sessions.SessionMiddleware"``.
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If you're dealing with an admin site, make sure the ``SessionMiddleware`` line
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appears before the ``AdminUserRequired`` line. (The middleware classes are
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applied in order, and the admin middleware requires that the session middleware
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come first.)
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If you don't want to use sessions, you might as well remove the
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``SessionMiddleware`` line from ``MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES``. It'll save you a small
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bit of overhead.
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Using sessions in views
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=======================
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Each ``HttpRequest`` object -- the first argument to any Django view function --
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has a ``session`` attribute, which is a dictionary-like object. You can read
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it and write to it.
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It implements the following standard dictionary methods:
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* ``__getitem__(key)``
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Example: ``fav_color = request.session['fav_color']``
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* ``__setitem__(key, value)``
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Example: ``request.session['fav_color'] = 'blue'``
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* ``__delitem__(key)``
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Example: ``del request.session['fav_color']``
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* ``get(key, default=None)``
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Example: ``fav_color = request.session.get('fav_color', 'red')``
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It also has these three methods:
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* ``set_test_cookie()``
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Sets a test cookie to determine whether the user's browser supports
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cookies. Due to the way cookies work, you won't be able to test this
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until the user's next page request. See "Setting test cookies" below for
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more information.
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* ``test_cookie_worked()``
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Returns either ``True`` or ``False``, depending on whether the user's
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browser accepted the test cookie. Due to the way cookies work, you'll
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have to call ``set_test_cookie()`` on a previous, separate page request.
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See "Setting test cookies" below for more information.
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* ``delete_test_cookie()``
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Deletes the test cookie. Use this to clean up after yourself.
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You can edit ``request.session`` at any point in your view. You can edit it
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multiple times.
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Session object guidelines
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-------------------------
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* Use normal Python strings as dictionary keys on ``request.session``. This
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is more of a convention than a hard-and-fast rule.
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* Session dictionary keys that begin with an underscore are reserved for
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internal use by Django.
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* Don't override ``request.session`` with a new object, and don't access or
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set its attributes. Use it like a Python dictionary.
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Examples
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--------
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This simplistic view sets a ``has_commented`` variable to ``True`` after a user
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posts a comment. It doesn't let a user post a comment more than once::
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def post_comment(request, new_comment):
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if request.session.get('has_commented', False):
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return HttpResponse("You've already commented.")
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c = comments.Comment(comment=new_comment)
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c.save()
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request.session['has_commented'] = True
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return HttpResponse('Thanks for your comment!')
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This simplistic view logs a user in::
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def login(request):
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u = users.get_object(username__exact=request.POST['username'])
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if u.check_password(request.POST['password']):
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request.session['user_id'] = u.id
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return HttpResponse("You're logged in.")
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else:
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return HttpResponse("Your username and password didn't match.")
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...And this one logs a user out, according to ``login()`` above::
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def logout(request):
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try:
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del request.session['user_id']
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except KeyError:
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pass
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return HttpResponse("You're logged out.")
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Setting test cookies
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====================
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As a convenience, Django provides an easy way to test whether the user's
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browser accepts cookies. Just call ``request.session.set_test_cookie()`` in a
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view, and call ``request.session.test_cookie_worked()`` in a subsequent view --
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not in the same view call.
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This awkward split between ``set_test_cookie()`` and ``test_cookie_worked()``
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is necessary due to the way cookies work. When you set a cookie, you can't
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actually tell whether a browser accepted it until the browser's next request.
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It's good practice to use ``delete_test_cookie()`` to clean up after yourself.
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Do this after you've verified that the test cookie worked.
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Here's a typical usage example::
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def login(request):
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if request.POST:
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if request.session.test_cookie_worked():
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request.session.delete_test_cookie()
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return HttpResponse("You're logged in.")
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else:
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return HttpResponse("Please enable cookies and try again.")
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request.session.set_test_cookie()
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t = template_loader.get_template("foo/login_form")
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c = Context(request)
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return HttpResponse(t.render(c))
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Using sessions out of views
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===========================
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Internally, each session is just a normal Django model. The ``Session`` model
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is defined in ``django/models/core.py``. Because it's a normal model, you can
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access sessions using the normal Django database API::
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>>> from django.models.core import sessions
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>>> s = sessions.get_object(pk='2b1189a188b44ad18c35e113ac6ceead')
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>>> s.expire_date
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datetime.datetime(2005, 8, 20, 13, 35, 12)
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Note that you'll need to call ``get_decoded()`` to get the session dictionary.
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This is necessary because the dictionary is stored in an encoded format::
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>>> s.session_data
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'KGRwMQpTJ19hdXRoX3VzZXJfaWQnCnAyCkkxCnMuMTExY2ZjODI2Yj...'
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>>> s.get_decoded()
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{'user_id': 42}
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Technical details
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=================
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* The session dictionary should accept any pickleable Python object. See
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`the pickle module`_ for more information.
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* Session data is stored in a database table named ``core_sessions`` .
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* Django only sends a cookie if it needs to. If you don't set any session
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data, it won't send a session cookie.
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.. _`the pickle module`: http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-pickle.html
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