sharing user info w/ a WebRequest ?

[matt]

hello,

i am having trouble doing something. when a user triggers a certain
event in my app, i need to initiate another web request to one of my
other webpages, programmaticall y. currently, i do this via a WebRequest
-- i attach the default credentials and get the response stream. that
part works. like so:

WebRequest request = HttpWebRequest. Create(reportAs pxURL);
request.Credent ials = CredentialCache .DefaultCredent ials;

WebResponse response = request.GetResp onse();

//Read response to a string
Stream stream = response.GetRes ponseStream();
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(st ream);

string html = sr.ReadToEnd();

//insert html into my PDF-maker
ConvertToPDF(ht ml);

what *doesnt* work, is trying to share user info between the user's
session in my app, and the web request (in this case, to the report
ASPX page). i need to pass some user info into the report-generating
ASPX. i understand that the Session objects cannot be shared, because
WebRequest (presumably) opens a new session.

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.
or is there perhaps a better way to do this? since its an
apppage-to-apppage call w/i the same project, can i programmaticall y
load up the 2nd page, rather than do a WebRequest?
thanks!
matt

[matt]

ma**@mailinator .com wrote:

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.

btw, heres the abstract helper-class code i use to set/get cookie info:

(first page, store some user value)

//create cookie
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(cook ieName);

context.Respons e.Cookies.Add(c ookie);

//optional cookie persist
if (rememberMe == true)
context.Respons e.Cookies[cookieName].Expires =
DateTime.Now.Ad dMonths(1);

//(called from elsewhere) add to cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request .Cookies[cookieName];
cookie.Values[itemName] = itemValue;
context.Respons e.Cookies.Add(c ookie);
(second page, retrieve some user value)

//get from cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request .Cookies[cookieName];

if (cookie != null)
value = cookie.Values[itemName];
....like i mentioned, that works for my cross-virtual-directory pages.
but it doesnt seem to work when trying to retrieve cookie data from the
WebRequest .aspx page (same project/virtual-directory).
thanks!
matt

[Peter Bromberg [C# MVP]]

Matt,
at first reading it seems to me that you aren't "OOP-ifying" your code. If
some other page has a method that you need to call from your current page,
that method should be in a separate class library that your first page can
reference and use, without having to resort to a WebRequest. If you need
session, provide it with a reference to System.Web and / or pass in the
HttpContext.Cur rent property to the method.
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com


"ma**@mailinato r.com" wrote:

ma**@mailinator .com wrote:

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.

btw, heres the abstract helper-class code i use to set/get cookie info:

(first page, store some user value)

//create cookie
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(cook ieName);

context.Respons e.Cookies.Add(c ookie);

//optional cookie persist
if (rememberMe == true)
context.Respons e.Cookies[cookieName].Expires =
DateTime.Now.Ad dMonths(1);

//(called from elsewhere) add to cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request .Cookies[cookieName];
cookie.Values[itemName] = itemValue;
context.Respons e.Cookies.Add(c ookie);
(second page, retrieve some user value)

//get from cookie
HttpCookie cookie = context.Request .Cookies[cookieName];

if (cookie != null)
value = cookie.Values[itemName];
....like i mentioned, that works for my cross-virtual-directory pages.
but it doesnt seem to work when trying to retrieve cookie data from the
WebRequest .aspx page (same project/virtual-directory).
thanks!
matt

[matt]

peter,

often do i placed shared methods into common libraries. however that
isnt quite the situation here.
i have many .ASPX pages that produce reports, via DataRepeaters -- each
repeater uses a unique and sometimes complex HTML table to display the
results. in each report page, the Page_Load retrieves data & binds it
to that page's repeater (it does so w/ some user preferences as far as
the query goes).

now i need a PDF version for some of these reports. since i can pass in
HTML into a PDF-component, it seemed the thing to do was extract the
rendered HTML of a given report, and plop it into the PDF.

that seems sound, but the only problem is passing in the user's
preferences (stored in session) to the report -- no problem when they
were viewing the report as a webpage. problem when im trying to do a
WebRequest on the report.
i could certainly re-use the same data-generating method, as it is
indeed in a library. however, the DataRepeaters define HTML table at
design time, and it would seem trickier to learn how to produce said
table+repeaters at runtime, than it would be to figure out how to pass
state (user prefs) to these pages, and suck up their final HTML.
matt

[Peter Bromberg [C# MVP]]

Try using Cache instead of Session, but with a unique key such as the
sessionid, and pass that on the querystring.
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com


"ma**@mailinato r.com" wrote:

peter,

often do i placed shared methods into common libraries. however that
isnt quite the situation here.
i have many .ASPX pages that produce reports, via DataRepeaters -- each
repeater uses a unique and sometimes complex HTML table to display the
results. in each report page, the Page_Load retrieves data & binds it
to that page's repeater (it does so w/ some user preferences as far as
the query goes).

now i need a PDF version for some of these reports. since i can pass in
HTML into a PDF-component, it seemed the thing to do was extract the
rendered HTML of a given report, and plop it into the PDF.

that seems sound, but the only problem is passing in the user's
preferences (stored in session) to the report -- no problem when they
were viewing the report as a webpage. problem when im trying to do a
WebRequest on the report.
i could certainly re-use the same data-generating method, as it is
indeed in a library. however, the DataRepeaters define HTML table at
design time, and it would seem trickier to learn how to produce said
table+repeaters at runtime, than it would be to figure out how to pass
state (user prefs) to these pages, and suck up their final HTML.
matt

[bruce barker \(sqlwork.com\)]

this won't work. access to session is serialized, so only one request (page)
can access the same session at a time. if you page calls another, that page
can not acces session until the calling page exits.

you could store your user info in a database (or application) and pass an id
to the url.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

<ma**@mailinato r.comwrote in message
news:11******** **************@ h48g2000cwc.goo glegroups.com.. .

hello,

i am having trouble doing something. when a user triggers a certain
event in my app, i need to initiate another web request to one of my
other webpages, programmaticall y. currently, i do this via a WebRequest
-- i attach the default credentials and get the response stream. that
part works. like so:

WebRequest request = HttpWebRequest. Create(reportAs pxURL);
request.Credent ials = CredentialCache .DefaultCredent ials;

WebResponse response = request.GetResp onse();

//Read response to a string
Stream stream = response.GetRes ponseStream();
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(st ream);

string html = sr.ReadToEnd();

//insert html into my PDF-maker
ConvertToPDF(ht ml);

what *doesnt* work, is trying to share user info between the user's
session in my app, and the web request (in this case, to the report
ASPX page). i need to pass some user info into the report-generating
ASPX. i understand that the Session objects cannot be shared, because
WebRequest (presumably) opens a new session.

but what about cookies? elsewhere in my app i use a cookie to store
session info, so when a user goes to a different virtual-directory in
the app, i can pick up their info seamlessly. but when i tried this
technique w/ the above (hitting the report-generating APSX), the .aspx
page cannot seem to find the cookie.
or is there perhaps a better way to do this? since its an
apppage-to-apppage call w/i the same project, can i programmaticall y
load up the 2nd page, rather than do a WebRequest?
thanks!
matt

[matt]

ma**@mailinator .com wrote:

or is there perhaps a better way to do this? since its an
apppage-to-apppage call w/i the same project, can i programmaticall y
load up the 2nd page, rather than do a WebRequest?

there was indeed a better way to do this. instead of a WebRequest
(useful for out-of-site grabs), use an Execute -- like so:

StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
Server.Execute( ""somePage.aspx ", writer);

string bodyHTML = writer.ToString ();

....and that grabs it. more, it also maintains state between the two!
excellent!
thanks,
matt