NAME

Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store - Base class for session storage drivers.

SYNOPSIS

package Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::MyBackend;
use base qw/Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store/;

DESCRIPTION

This class doesn't actually provide any functionality, but when the Catalyst::Plugin::Session module sets up it will check to see that YourApp->isa("Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store"). When you write a session storage plugin you should subclass this module for this reason. This documentation is intended for authors of session storage plugins, not for end users.

WRITING STORE PLUGINS

All session storage plugins need to adhere to the following interface specification to work correctly:

Required Methods

get_session_data $key

store_session_data $key, $data

Retrieve or store session data by key.

$data is currently either a hash reference (for most keys) or an integer value (for expires), but all value types should be supported.

Keys are in the format prefix:id, where prefix is session, expires, or flash, and id is always the session ID. Plugins such as Catalyst::Plugin::Session::PerUser store extensions to this format, such as user:username.

It is suggested that the store should split on the colon and store the data more efficiently - the API should remain stable, with the possible addition of new prefixes in the future.

For example, Store::DBI maps expires:id a column of session:id by special-casing get_session_data and store_session_data for that key format, in order to ease the implementation of delete_expired_sessions.

The only assurance stores are required to make is that given

$c->store_session_data( $x, $y );

for any $x,

$y == $c->get_session_data( $x )

will hold.

store_session_data ( $key, $data )

Store a session whose KEY is the first parameter and data is the second parameter in storage.

The second parameter is a hash reference, which should normally be serialized (and later deserialized by get_session_data).

delete_session_data ( $key )

Delete the session whose KEY is the parameter.

delete_expired_sessions

This method is not called by any code at present, but may be called in the future, as part of a Catalyst-specific maintenance script.

If you are wrapping around a backend which manages its own auto expiry you can just give this method an empty body.

Error handling

All errors should be thrown using Catalyst::Exception. Return values are not checked, and are assumed to be OK. Missing values are not errors.

Auto-Expiry on the Backend

Storage plugins are encouraged to use $c->session_expires, $c->config('Plugin::Session' => { expires => $val }), or the storage of the expires:$sessionid key to perform more efficient expiration, but only for the key prefixes session, flash and expires.

If the backend chooses not to do so, Catalyst::Plugin::Session will detect expired sessions as they are retrieved and delete them if necessary.

Note that session store that use this approach may leak disk space, since nothing will actively delete an expired session. The delete_expired_sessions method is there so that regularly scheduled maintenance scripts can give your backend the opportunity to clean up.