How does SmartClient retain session?

[Brett]

How does a SmartClient application return its Internet connection? Say I
have an application that is used strictly through the web browser. I retain
session via cookies. I want more client side functionality and will do this
via SmartClient. How does the smart client retain its session?

As a side point, most people won't download a small application just to use
a website. I'm assuming SmartClient is for a target audience and not the
general public. Please comment?

Thanks,
Brett

 

[Chris Taylor]

Hi,

If I understand your question correctly, this is my view on the topic,
please note my closing paragraph.

SmartClients do not generally need to maintain session state on the server.
However if you absolutely need that functionality one option would be to use
a WebService to communicate back to the server from the smart client and
have your WebService maintain session state, by default WebServices do not
maintain session state, but this can be enabled with the following attribute
on the web method:

[System.Web.Services.WebMethod(EnableSession=true)]

Obviously this would require that the smart client runs in a more trusted
environment and would thus require configuration of client workstations. I
normally address this with a simple msi which is rolled out via active
directory.

On the other hand if all you need is to persist information for the client
then you could use isolated storage

Personally I have never needed to go the route of server side sessions for a
smartclient application and would probably try to find an alternative
design.

Hope this helps

 

[Brett]

On the other hand if all you need is to persist information for the client
then you could use isolated storage

What do you mean by isolated storage?

Personally I have never needed to go the route of server side sessions for
a
smartclient application and would probably try to find an alternative
design.

Please elaborate.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Hi,

To learn more about isolated storage take a look at the class
IsolatedStorage in the MSDN help. In short isolated storage is a secure way
of providing a smart client access to a client hard disk without the smart
client having access to all other data on the disk, there by isolating the
access the smart client application has to the physical disk, this prevents
the smart client from performing unauthorized disk activities on the client
workstation. Additionally the smart client is allocated a disk quota thereby
preventing a malicious smart client from hogging the disk space.

To elaborate on an alternative design that would be relevant to your
requirements I would have to understand your requirements. But as a few
options you can maintain state using a server side database or as I have
mentioned using isolated storage.

Hope this helps

 

[Brett]

How is isolated storage different from a cookie? It still must address
stateless: cookies, URL parameters, serverside database.

Thanks,
Brett