Array of session variables possible?

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hello all,

Is it possible to create an array of session[:values]? Or a hash of session[:values]?

I have a web application where I manage session variables for saving various control states (within the session; not persisting across sessions), such as whether a checkbox was set, or text typed into a textbox. Doing this helps the application to "remember" what the user has done within the session so the user doesn't have to retype this information each time they revisit the same page.

I now want to create an admin user who can become an existing user by selecting from a droplist within the admin session. For example, I want the admin to become John, and set a checkbox within the John session. Then become Jane and set some other control within the Jane session. And, then return back to John's session with all control states set back to the John session.

In effect, I want to maintain an array or hash of session variables: one set of session variables for each of a list of users. And, of course, this list of users is dynamic (users getting added and removed all the time).

While I know I can do this by persisting this information (write/read to/from a database), I'd prefer not to do this (though for performance reasons, I may find persisting to be faster as the number of users increases).

So, my question is: is it possible to create an array of session[:values]? Or a hash of session[:values]? If so, what is the syntax for such a creation?

Thanks much.

2

You can treat the session just like any other variable in Ruby.

3

One thing you may want to consider is creating your own Ruby class Foo that stores all of this information. Then you can store it in the session like this:

a = Foo.new a.name = 'Wyatt Greene' a.other_data = 'fork' session[:foo] = a

You can have different Foo objects for the admin, for John, etc. They can easily be changed:

session[:foo] = admin_foo session[:foo] = john_foo

This isn't the only way of doing this, but it might work well.

Cheers! Wyatt Greene

4

Oh, and by the way, it's true that you can treat the session like any other variable in Ruby. It behaves like a hash, but keep in mind that it's not strictly a Ruby hash. Rails extends its behavior a bit.