Guest users - info available during entire session?

tford

I am writing an ticketing application where sponsors of an event can provide a link to their selected customers to redeem free tickets to the event.

I will be providing each sponsor with a unique encrypted login string that will be used that just that one sponsor's customers. When a customer of a sponsor clicks this link, they will enter the application as a Guest and be presented with a welcome message that is customized for that sponsor. This will be accomplished by having a startProcess2 parameter included in the encrypted link for each sponsor.

So far so good. Now here is my dilemma.

During the entire session of the guest user who is redeeming a free tickets, I want to retain the name of the sponsor. Since I can't use LoggedInRegularUser (since they are not logged in) or SystemSettings (because there might be two guest users redeeming tickets at one time), I am at a loss about how and where to store the necessary info about the sponsor of this guest user throughout their free ticket redemption session.

Any ideas?

johntalbott

tford wrote
I am writing an ticketing application where sponsors of an event can provide a link to their selected customers to redeem free tickets to the event.

I will be providing each sponsor with a unique encrypted login string that will be used that just that one sponsor's customers. When a customer of a sponsor clicks this link, they will enter the application as a Guest and be presented with a welcome message that is customized for that sponsor. This will be accomplished by having a startProcess2 parameter included in the encrypted link for each sponsor.

So far so good. Now here is my dilemma.

During the entire session of the guest user who is redeeming a free tickets, I want to retain the name of the sponsor. Since I can't use LoggedInRegularUser (since they are not logged in) or SystemSettings (because there might be two guest users redeeming tickets at one time), I am at a loss about how and where to store the necessary info about the sponsor of this guest user throughout their free ticket redemption session.

Any ideas?

I know you know inner-workings of Aware much better than I do, but thinking conceptually ... would something like this work?

Each of your Vendors owns a VendorGuestUser that maintains the associated unique key that also serves as generic login credentials for any customers routed to the app using the link with the unique key.

It doesn't really sound like security or the identity of the particular customer is of concern in your scenario so maybe the unique key is literally used as both the username/password. Or you come up with some other scheme if security and identity is a concern.

When the user clicks the link to navigate to the site, it actually logs them as a VendorGuestUser so you'd always have the parent vendor available to you.

customaware

Hi Tom,

As soon as the Guest logs in

CREATE WhoAmI WITH WhoAmI.ps_Sponsor=Sponsor, WhoAmI.SessionID=Session_ID()

Then, until the person finishes the browser session or it times out you can easier find which Sponsor they are connected for.

tford

Thanks much, John & Mark. Two very good options. Will be tackling this today.

BLOMASKY

Does the "WHOAMI" record always remain in context throughout the application? As the user is doing different "stuff" is there anything that would cause the WHOAMI to not be in context? (Besides deleting it or doing a FIND for a new record?

I am asking that, since if there is some process called, where the WHOAMI is NOT passed, can the process just use ThisWHOAMI?

Thanks

Bruce

tford

I am asking that, since if there is some process called, where the WHOAMI is NOT passed, can the process just use ThisWHOAMI?

It would not always be in context. I'm assuming something like this can be used to grab it and put it in context:

FIND WhoAmI WHERE WhoAmI.SessionID=Session_ID()

customaware

Exactly Tom.

It will be like any other PERSISTENT record created unlike a non-persistent record which is gone
once context is lost.

tford

The WhoAmI record can actually be created with LoginNotification.

For example, I added this rule to "When Login Notification is Received":
CREATE LoginLog WITH LoginLog.IsGuest=LoginNotification.IsGuest,LoginLog.LoginNameCopy=LoginNotification.LoginName,LoginLog.SessionId=LoginNotification.SessionId

Then I was able to display the current session's LoginLog record with this process:
FIND LoginLog WHERE LoginLog.SessionId=SESSION_ID()
DISPLAY MESSAGE LoginLog.SessionId

Lastly, I was able to create a query to show only the current session's LoginLog entry using this WHERE:
FIND LoginLog WHERE LoginLog.SessionId=Session_ID()

So, I can easily stamp any BO instance I create with the current session # of the guest (yes, guest users ARE processed through the LoginNotification mechanism) & easily retrieve current session instances of any BO.

customaware

Thanx Tom. Never thought of that....

Excellent.