Session Tracking

HTTP is a state-less protocol, i.e, once your request processed, then there is no relation between you(browser) and the server. The HTTP protocol is stateless, so the server and the browser should have a way of storing the identity of the user through multiple requests.

Session management is necessary in almost all applications, For example, a shopping cart application should know who is sending the request to add an item and in which cart the item has to be added or who is sending checkout request so that it can charge the amount to correct client.

There are three typical solutions to this problem.

    1. Cookies

    2. URL rewriting

    3. Hidden form fields

But Servlets provide a robust solution using the HttpSession API.

Session management process is like below.

Step 1 : Client send first request

Step 2 : Container generates unique session id and gives it back to client with the response.

Step 3 : The client sends back the session id for each subsequent requests.

Step 4: Container checks the session id and use the data associated with the session.

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