Re: Business Objects and Session Variables

From: Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\) (NoSpamMgbworld_at_comcast.netNoSpamM)
Date: 02/02/04 

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 10:53:29 -0600

Because of the nature of the web (long periods of inactivity) and the fact
that a user object is generally low perf hit to fill (via database
retrieval), I do not see as great a benefit to dropping objects into
session, but I am not adverse to it either.

The biggest question, for your app, is which is going to cause more
problems:
1. A bunch of unused objects in memory for extended periods of time (20
minutes after last hit by default)
2. Hitting the database to get user info when a user requests a page

In some apps, the memory usage will kill scalability. For others, the
minimal lag to the RDBMS is the killer. In most, it does not matter one way
or the other.

If you want to have the greatest flexibility, make a factory method that
returns the user object from userID (or overload, from sessionID). You can
then feed the Session User Object or the database user object without a
major re-architecture. 

-- 
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA
**********************************************************************
Think Outside the Box!
**********************************************************************
"Dave Wurtz" <dave_!!no_spam!!wurtz@asdsoftware.com> wrote in message
news:401e775d$1@news.splitrock.net...
> All,
>
> I'm new to ASP development and I have a basic design question:
>
> Is it ok to store business objects to session variables or is there a
better
> way to keep object information?
>
> For example, if a user logs onto the website, a user object is created
that
> stores their full name, email address, street address, phone, etc.  This
> object also has methods to do 'other' things such as validations,
counters,
> etc.  When the user logs in, the object is instantiated.  Is it ok to keep
> this object for the life of the session?  If some items are always needed
> (for example maybe the full name is on the header of every page), it is
very
> convenient just to call a property off of the user object.
>
> I've also seen some examples where the primary key of the object is stored
> in the session variable, and the object is rebuilt all of the time.  Which
> way is better?
>
> Storing the user object for the life of the session is definitely more
> convenient for the programmer, but is it going to kill my performance?  On
> the other hand, recreating the user object each time would potentially
have
> to requery the database to retrieve information - is this going to kill my
> performance?
>
> Any help on this would be very much appreciated!
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dave Wurtz
> Advanced Software Designs
>
>

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