why doesn't my session work when I run my app via curl

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have my app keep state with a session variable in my DB:

  session :session_key => '_myapp_session_id'

This works find when I login and run my app via my browser.

But when I login via curl, the session doesn't seem to work, and once I call a action that need authentication, the can't find my session variable. I checked my DB and a row is added everytime I login via curl, but the rest of my app can't seem to read the session variable.

What's going on? Does the session only work via a web browser?

2

eggie5 wrote:

I have my app keep state with a session variable in my DB:

  session :session_key => '_myapp_session_id'

This works find when I login and run my app via my browser.

But when I login via curl, the session doesn't seem to work, and once I call a action that need authentication, the can't find my session variable. I checked my DB and a row is added everytime I login via curl, but the rest of my app can't seem to read the session variable.

What's going on? Does the session only work via a web browser?

You will most likely need to tell CURL to use the cookie set on login. Google curl + cookie and there are a few explanations on what is required. Alternatively you can try and change you app to not use cookies for tracking sessions (not sure how hard that is in rails). Anyway I think you can get curl to save the cookie to a file and then use that in subsequent requests. But I haven't done it myself.

Cheers,

Anthony Richardson

3

Ahhh, thanks alot. I've got it working now.

When I login, I need to save my cookie:

eggie5$ curl -d "asfsaf:asfasdf" -c cookie localhost:3000/ authentication/login

Now, all I need to do for any subsequent API calls is to reference my cookie! e.g.:

eggie5$ curl -b cookie localhost:3000/content_campaigns/5/attachments ["5_1.3g2", "5_10.3g2", "5_11.3gp", "5_12.3gp", "5_13.3g2", "5_14.mp4", "5_2.3g2", "5_3.3g2", "5_4.3g2", "5_5.3g2", "5_6.3g2", "5_6.3gp", "5_7.3g2", "5_8.3g2", "5_9.3g2"]

So to save the cookie when you login use curl -c [cookie-file-path] this saves the cookie text file to your current directory. Then to reference your cookie in subsequent calls use curl -b [cookie- file-path]

4

My guess is Cookies isn't supported with curl. Perhap my plugin (link below) may be of help.

Cheers,

-- Long http://MeandmyCity.com/ - Find your way http://edgesoft.ca/blog/read/2 - No-Cookie Session Support plugin

5

No, I figured out how to do it with curl. It's not too bad. I just wonder how valid the use of cookies would be for an API... I'm pretty sure any environment would support cookies: C#, java, ruby, flex...

6

Yes, thanks for the previous post. I did learn something after all <g>

-- Long