Enabling session state programmatically
“Finally!!!”, you say…I hear you man! With ASP.NET 4.0, we can enable/disable session state programmatically (like in C# code :) ). The new version of the framework adds a new method (SetSessionStateBehavior) to the HttpContext class. You’re supposed to pass it a value from the SessionStatebehavior to influence the use of session state. Currently, you can pass the following values:
- Default: passing this means that everything works as before (ie, you control session through the @page directive or the <pages> entry in the web.config file);
- Required: session state is enabled for read/write access;
- ReadOnly: gives access to read only session state;
- Disabled: turns off session state for the current request.
In practice, passing one of the last three methods means that eventual settings specified at the @Page directive or in the <pages> element of the config file are ignored. There’s a caveat: you can only use the new method influence the use of state until the AcquireRequestState event is fired. Doing it after means getting an exception.
And that’s it. Stay tuned for more on ASP.NET.