session

  # retrieve the session object
  my $session = $self->session;

  - or -

  # use the session object directly
  my $language = $self->session->param('language');

session_config

The recommended place to call "session_config" is in the "cgiapp_init" stage of CGI::Application. If this method is called after the session object has already been accessed, then it will die with an error message.

If this method is not called at all then a reasonable set of defaults will be used (the exact default values are defined below).

The following parameters are accepted:

CGI_SESSION_OPTIONS

This allows you to customize how the CGI::Session object is created by providing a list of options that will be passed to the CGI::Session constructor. Please see the documentation for CGI::Session for the exact syntax of the parameters.

DEFAULT_EXPIRY

CGI::Session Allows you to set an expiry time for the session. You can set the DEFAULT_EXPIRY option to have a default expiry time set for all newly created sessions. It takes the same format as the $session->expiry method of CGI::Session takes. Note that it is only set for new session, not when a session is reloaded from the store.

COOKIE_PARAMS

This allows you to customize the options that are used when creating the session cookie. For example you could provide an expiry time for the cookie by passing -expiry => '+24h'. The -name and -value parameters for the cookie will be added automatically unless you specifically override them by providing -name and/or -value parameters. See the CGI::Cookie docs for the exact syntax of the parameters.

NOTE: You can do the following to get both the cookie name and the internal name of the CGI::Session object to be changed:

  $self->session_config(
    CGI_SESSION_OPTIONS => [
      $driver,
      $self->query,
      \%driver_options,
      { name => 'new_cookie_name' } # change cookie and session name
    ]
  );
    

Also, if '-name' parameter and 'name' of session don't match a warning will be emitted.

SEND_COOKIE

If set to a true value, the module will automatically add a cookie header to the outgoing headers if a new session is created (Since the session module is lazy loaded, this will only happen if you make a call to $self->session at some point to create the session object). This option defaults to true. If it is set to false, then no session cookies will be sent, which may be useful if you prefer URL based sessions (it is up to you to pass the session ID in this case).

The following example shows what options are set by default (ie this is what you would get if you do not call session_config).

 $self->session_config(
          CGI_SESSION_OPTIONS => [ "driver:File", $self->query, {Directory=>'/tmp'} ],
          COOKIE_PARAMS       => {
                                   -path  => '/',
                                 },
          SEND_COOKIE         => 1,
 );

Here is a more customized example that uses the PostgreSQL driver and sets an expiry and domain on the cookie.

 $self->session_config(
          CGI_SESSION_OPTIONS => [ "driver:PostgreSQL;serializer:Storable", $self->query, {Handle=>$dbh} ],
          COOKIE_PARAMS       => {
                                   -domain  => 'mydomain.com',
                                   -expires => '+24h',
                                   -path    => '/',
                                   -secure  => 1,
                                 },
 );

session_cookie

This method is called automatically the first time $self->session is accessed if SEND_COOKIE was set true, which is the default, so it will most likely never need to be called manually.

NOTE that if you do choose to call it manually that a session object will automatically be created if it doesn't already exist. This removes the lazy loading benefits of the plugin where a session is only created/loaded when it is required.

It could be useful if you want to force the cookie header to be sent out even if the session is not used on this request, or if you want to manage the headers yourself by turning SEND_COOKIE to false.

  # Force the cookie header to be sent including some
  # custom cookie parameters
  $self->session_cookie(-secure => 1, -expires => '+1w');

session_loaded

  sub cgiapp_postrun {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->session->flush if $self->session_loaded;;
  }

session_recreate

This can be useful to protect against some login attacks when storing authentication tokens in the session. Very briefly, an attacker loads a page on your site and creates a session, then tries to trick a victim into loading this page with the same session ID (possibly by embedding it in a URL). Then if the victim follows the link and subsequently logs into their account, the attacker will have a valid session ID where the session is now logged in, and hence the attacker has access to the victims account.

  sub mylogin {
    my $self = shift;
    if ($newly_authenticated) {
        $self->session_recreate;
    }
  }

session_delete

  sub logout {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->session_delete;
    # what now?  redirect user back to the homepage?
  }