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= How sessions work in MoinMoin =

Sessions in MoinMoin are implemented using a special session handler that can be configured in `cfg.session_handler`. By default, an instance of the class `MoinMoin.session.DefaultSessionHandler` is used for managing sessions.

Code using the session framework currently includes:
 * the superuser "change user" functionality, see HelpOnSuperUser
 * the visited pages trail

== Session related configuration ==
|| cookie_domain || `None` || Domain used in the session cookie. ||
|| cookie_path || `None` || Path used in the session cookie. ||
|| cookie_lifetime || `12` ||=0: forever, ignore user 'remember_me' setting; >0: n hours, or forever if user checked 'remember_me'; <0 -n hours, ignore user 'remember_me' setting ||
|| anonymous_session_lifetime || undefined || Set this to a non-zero value to enable anonymous sessions (can be fractional) [hours]. ||

(!) If you run a wiki farm and you want to share the session cookie between farm wikis, you want to change `cookie_domain` and/or `cookie_path`.

(!) If you want anonymous users to get session features (e.g. a trail), set `anonymous_session_lifetime`.

== Replacing session storage ==
Should you wish to store session data somewhere other than the filesystem cache Moin uses, you can use the `DefaultSessionHandler` along with a different class descending from `DefaultSessionData`. See `MoinMoin/session.py` for more details.

It is also possible but not recommended to use a different session handler altogether.

== Session example code ==

As an extension programmer, in order to use session variables, you can use `request.session` like a dict, values stored there are automatically saved and restored if a session is available. Some more advanced usage is possible, see `MoinMoin.session.SessionData` in the file `MoinMoin/session.py`.

Here's an example macro using the session code:
{{{
#!python
# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-

"""
    Tests session state.
"""

Dependencies = ['time']

def execute(macro, args):
    if macro.request.session.is_new:
        return macro.formatter.text('Not storing any state until you send a cookie.')
    if 'test' in macro.request.session:
        return macro.formatter.text("Loaded value %d" % macro.request.session['test'])
    import random
    value = random.randint(1, 100000)
    macro.request.session['test'] = value
    return macro.formatter.text("Set to value %d" % value)
}}}
