I would agree with what some others have written, in that an apparent over-use of session variables is not inherently bad, unless it is causing server instability or memory problems. Make sure the programmer is using session variables for a specific reason, and that he is aware of the issues that using session variables can cause. Out of all the faults one can find when examining a Web site, using too many session variables is fairly low on the priority list. 1000 users on a site at a time with 250 session variables per user doesn't seem that bad to me on the surface. Storing frequently accessed database data in the session scope is often used as a caching optimization technique to reduce the database bottleneck. It is a technique I use and recommend, especially for very busy Web applications. In general, the busier the Web application, the more you are going to want to store in-memory to reduce the database usage, assuming your server has sufficient RAM. Really giant Web sites, like Facebook and YouTube, make extensive use of in-memory databases, like memcached. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memcached>
One thing most developers neglect to do when using lots of session variables is making the session code thread safe, which takes a relatively high skill and experience level to accomplish. Unless you see a lot of cflock tags to mitigate the possible problems, a site with 1000 simultaneous users and 250 session variables might have random problems that could be traced back to the use of session variables. Threading problems can be hard to diagnose and are usually not discovered until the code gets put into a production environment. If the programmer is aware of the memory usage and threading issues, using lots of session variables is likely a minor concern, and potentially is a good thing if he is using them as a technique to speed up the Web application. You wrote "I see no scope referencing in these Vars," which I find odd if you are referring to variables in the session scope. All the in-memory variables should have their scope referenced when they are used. -Mike Chabot On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 11:37 AM, Robert Harrison <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks for all the input. Besides the fact that the application could > conceivably have hundreds of thousands of session Vars in memory, I'm > concerned about collision too. > > I see no scope referencing in these Vars and see they are all 'common names'. > I also see no routines to clear any vars after completion of an operation is > over. > > Oh well. > > Robert B. Harrison > Director of Interactive Services > Austin & Williams > 125 Kennedy Drive, Suite 100 > Hauppauge NY 11788 > P : 631.231.6600 Ext. 119 > F : 631.434.7022 > http://www.austin-williams.co ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:349723 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
