Use variables instead of session objects

Question

Can someone please tell me the difference between

urls = (
    "/count", "count",
    "/reset", "reset")
app = web.application(urls, locals())
store = web.session.DiskStore('sessions')
session = web.session.Session(app, store, initializer={'count': 0})
class count:
    def GET(self):
        session.count += 1
        return str(session.count)
class reset:
    def GET(self):
        session.kill()
        return ""
if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

and

urls = (
    "/count", "count",
    "/reset", "reset")
app = web.application(urls, locals())
class count:
    counting = 0
    def GET(self):
        count.counting += 1
        return str(count.counting)
class reset:
    def GET(self):
        count.counting = 0
        return ""
if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

Both their output is exactly the same as far as I can tell. If there is no difference then what is the advantage of using Session objects over variables like this ?

I am pretty new to Python and going through Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way. I was on exercise 52 where he introduces sessions when this question popped into my head.

Robᵩ · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-30 02:06:23Z

1

In the second instance, all browsers that connect to your application share a single counter. In the first instance, each browser counts according to its own session.

And, as kubked pointed out, the counter is persisted on disk in the first instance.

Reference: http://webpy.org/cookbook/sessions

edited Dec 30, 2013 at 2:06

answered Dec 30, 2013 at 1:55

Robᵩ

170k20 gold badges251 silver badges323 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

kubked · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-29 21:11:15Z

0

As far as i see in https://gitorious.org/lpthw-web/lpthw-web/source/b1ab4df58746c5d4e3dfb41e502a8192caec3ef1:web/session.py DiskStore session will keep session in file system. If server crashes you can run it once again and opened session will be still stored. With keeping data in variable, which means it will be stored in RAM, server crash cause losing it.

Of course keeping user data in session will be also better when you decide to use threads.

answered Dec 29, 2013 at 21:11

kubked

1475 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Use variables instead of session objects

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related