Session

Threading Issues

Multiple servlets executing request threads may have active access to the same session object at the same time. The container must ensure that manipulation of internal data structures representing the session attributes is performed in a thread safe manner. The Developer has the responsibility for thread safe access to the attribute objects themselves. This will protect the attribute collection inside the HttpSession object from concurrent access, eliminating the opportunity for an application to cause that collection to become corrupted.

Session Timeouts

In the HTTP protocol, there is no explicit termination signal when a client is no longer active. This means that the only mechanism that can be used to indicate when a client is no longer active is a time out period. The default time out period for sessions is defined by the servlet container and can be obtained via the getMaxInactiveInterval method of the HttpSession interface. This time out can be changed by the Developer using the setMaxInactiveInterval method of the HttpSession interface. The time out periods used by these methods are defined in seconds. By definition, if the time out period for a session is set to -1, the session will never expire. The session invalidation will not take effect until all servlets using that session have exited the service method. Once the session invalidation is initiated, a new request must not be able to see that session.