How to use the asp.net mvc session in service stack without authentication mechanism

Question

I am working on Asp.Net MVC and Service Stack. I am trying to implement that, make use of asp.net mvc session in service stack service class. That means,

Public ActionResult Index()
{
    Session["username"]="xxx";
    return View();
}

and from now i need to be able to make use of Session["username"] in service stack service class, but i am unable to use session in service stack service class. HttpContext.Current.Session throws null exception. I have referred Social Bootstrap Api service stack sample project, In that they use CustomUserSession class, that means after authentication they will store data into session like,

Plugins.Add(new AuthFeature(
                () => new CustomUserSession(), //Use your own typed Custom UserSession type
                new IAuthProvider[] {
                    new CredentialsAuthProvider()
}));

But in my application there is no authentication mechanism, but i need to store some information into the session and use that session in service stack service class.

To Enable session in service stack without authentication we use,

Plugins.Add(new SessionFeature());

so how to use the asp.net mvc session in service stack without authentication. Please Guide Me.

Answer 1

An important distinction to know about, is that ServiceStack Sessions are completely independent and are in no way related (except by name) from ASP.NET sessions. For the most part Sessions in ServiceStack are simply blobs stored in the registered Cache provider and referenced with the SessionId Cookies that are sent with each HTTP Request.

The easiest way to access ServiceStack sessions in ASP.NET MVC is to extend the ServiceStackController and use the SessionAs<T>() method to access your typed session, e.g:

public class MyMvcController : ServiceStackController
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        MyUserSession myServiceStackSession = base.SessionAs<MyUserSession>();

        return View();
    }
}

This makes use of the registered ICacheClient provider which is injected in the base.Cache property. You can use ServiceStack's IOC to autowire ASP.NET MVC controllers with dependencies registered in ServiceStack's IOC by setting MVC's SetControllerFactory(), e.g:

public override void Configure(Funq.Container container)
{
    //Set MVC to use the same Funq IOC as ServiceStack
    ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(
        new FunqControllerFactory(container));
}

Otherwise if you want to use a different IOC for ASP.NET MVC Controllers and ServiceStack you would need to register the same ICacheClient Provider that's registered in ServiceStack's IOC, in your MVC IOC. If no CacheClient is registered, ServiceStack uses the MemoryCacheClient by default.

See the wiki for more info about integrating ServiceStack with ASP.NET MVC.

Accessing ASP.NET Request and Session in ServiceStack Services

When hosted on ASP.NET you can access the underlying ASP.NET request with:

public class MyServices : Service
{
    public object Any(MyRequest request)
    {
        var aspReq = base.Request.OriginalRequest as HttpRequestBase;
        if (aspReq != null)
        {
            var value = aspReq.RequestContext.HttpContext.Session["key"];
        }

        //or if you prefer via the ASP.NET Singleton:
        var value = HttpContext.Current.Session["key"];
    }
}