# Saving instance variables between GETs

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/saving-instance-variables-between-gets/28167>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [April 17, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/saving-instance-variables-between-gets/28167 "2008-04-17T16:26:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/saving-instance-variables-between-gets/28167/1 "2008-04-17T16:26:57Z")

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Am I really the only one wondering about this? Or is my basic structure of the application wrong?

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**Author:** ![rab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/rab/32/710_2.png) [@rab](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/rab)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/saving-instance-variables-between-gets/28167/2 "2008-04-17T16:40:11Z")

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Your assumption of the basic structure is wrong. The HTTP protocol is stateless so you need to use sessions (cookies, and possibly a database) to establish the illusion of persistence. Every new request creates a new instance of the controller that needs to handle it so the instance variables (and the instance) in the previous request are gone.

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn [http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com) Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com