Listen to Scott on this one. If you can educate just one user that turning session cookies back on isn't going to blow up their computer or get their credit card stolen then our society becomes one step closer to nirvana.

If you were an auto dealer and a customer brought their car in and said they didn't "like to have the battery plugged in", but wanted to know why they couldn't start their car, would you install a hand crank for them to start their car?

I know... It's a weak analogy...   :)

/John

Scott Cadillac wrote:

Hi Steve,

If you recall, the point and the conclusion on that long discussion was "security" - if a user has session-cookies disabled, then so be it. Just display a message telling them to turn it back on before allowing them to proceed (provide instructions).

This is the most secure way to handle session management for any web platform (SSL is a different matter).

The issue is about security - why compromise security for user convenience. Giving them convenience now just delays more serious problems until a later date.

----
Yes, additional user variables may be assigned on the Server because of missing 
session-
cookies. Unfortunately, it is one down-side to pay for better security for your 
visitors.

-----
As for testing for cookies, writing a bit of code for this is not difficult - but keep in mind there is a different between "session" cookies and regular cookies, and that most every modern browser has settings for both kinds (and that some browsers use different terminology to describe these two kinds of cookies).


Hope this helps. Cheers....

Scott Cadillac,
XML-Extranet ~ 403-254-5002 ~ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Well-formed Programming in C# ASP.NET, Witango and XML For Hire ~ http://xmlx.ca/forhire
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Fogelson, Steve" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Witango User Group (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 15:40:48 -0500
Subject: Witango-Talk: Cookies



I have built my shopping cart application without <@userreference> tag
at
the end of each url. It seemed after all the discussion about a year
ago
that this was the way to go. Especially with search engine spiders and
hijacked sessions.

I talked to one of our online customers today and discovered that he
was
being assigned a new session id every time he added an item to his
cart.

I'm trying to figure out a strategy for handling customers that have
disabled cookies, besides requiring them to sign in when entering the
site.

Is there a way to check to see if they have cookies disabled?

Any ideas on how to handle customers that have disabled cookies?

I am also concerned about all the user variables being created for this
type
of customer. Thanks in advance for your help.

Steve Fogelson
Internet Commerce Solutions


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