Sharing sessions across applications using the ASP.NET Session State Service

Question

I am trying to share sessions between two web applications, both hosted on the same server. One is a .net 2.0 web forms application the other is as .net 3.5 MVC2 application.

Both apps have their session set up like this:

<sessionState
      mode="StateServer"
      stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
      />

In the webform application I am posting the the session key to the MVC app:

protected void LinkButton1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Session["myvariable"] = "dan"; 
    string sessionKey = HttpContext.Current.Session.SessionID;

    //Followed by some code that posts sessionKey to the other application    
}

I then recieve it in the MVC application and try use the same session like this:

[HttpPost]
public  void Recieve(string sessionKey )
{
    var manager = new SessionIDManager();

    bool redirected;
    bool IsAdded;

     manager.SaveSessionID(HttpContext.ApplicationInstance.Context, Id, out redirected, out IsAdded);
     var myVar = Session["myvariable"];

}

The key is being posted but the session does not seem to get loaded in the MVC app, i.e. sessionKey is null. Can what I am trying to do be done?

Answer 1

I did it this way:

Basically the idea is both apps use native .net sessionState stored in sqlserver. By using the same machine key and making a small tweak to a stored procedure – both apps can share any session keys and/or forms authenication.

Both apps would do something like this in their web.config:

<sessionState mode="SQLServer" sqlConnectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;User Id=test;Password=test;Application Name=AppName"  />
    <machineKey
validationKey="SOMEKEY"
validation="SHA1" decryption="AES"
/>

Session state db would need to be set up on a database server, that both apps can see.

Docs for doing this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229862(VS.80).aspx

Command that would need to be run: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin>aspnet_regsql.exe -E -ssadd --sstype p -S .\SQLEXPRESS

Stored procedure (TempGetAppID) tweak to:

 @appId int OUTPUT
AS

    -- start change

    -- Use the application name specified in the connection for the appname if specified
    -- This allows us to share session between sites just by making sure they have the
    -- the same application name in the connection string.
    DECLARE @connStrAppName nvarchar(50)
    SET @connStrAppName = APP_NAME()

    -- .NET SQLClient Data Provider is the default application name for .NET apps
    IF (@connStrAppName <> '.NET SQLClient Data Provider')
        SET @appName = @connStrAppName

    -- end change

SET @appName = LOWER(@appName)