Re: HTTP Session Extension draft

On Wed, 5 Jul 1995, Ted Hardie wrote:
> I also wonder how difficult it would be to allow either side to open
> the negotiation for a maintained session.  Could we allow the server
> to send "Session: maintain" in response to a request which (from the
> servers' point of view) is likely to be followed by requests for which
> a session-orientation is useful?  Many servers would like to have
> "click-trail" traces of web users' traversals; if you allow the server
> to initiate a session, the current kludges using cgi scripts and
> hidden variables could be eliminated. 

I'd rather see "clicktrails" tracked by browsers sending Session-ID: 
lines (which we talked about here a while ago, Bill put in emacs-W3, and 
I'm hoping is on the list for HTTP/1.x) than by persistant connections.
You could also use that ID as a key to other stateful information the 
server wants to keep, but only for a short term.  Also, maintaining that 
connection might not necessarily improve bandwidth - the thought of busy 
servers with 1000 concurrent parallel connections all sending KEEPALIVE 
packets is a little scary :)  

	Brian

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Received on Wednesday, 5 July 1995 19:09:46 UTC