How Can I Share ASP.NET Session State Between a .NET 2.0 Web Forms and a .NET 3.5 MVC2 Application?

Cross-Application Session Sharing in ASP.NET: A .NET 2.0 Web Forms and .NET 3.5 MVC2 Solution

Introduction

Maintaining consistent session data across multiple ASP.NET applications simplifies data management and inter-application communication. This article addresses a common challenge: sharing sessions between a .NET 2.0 Web Forms application and a .NET 3.5 MVC2 application residing on the same server.

The Problem: Session Key Inconsistencies

When using the StateServer mode with identical stateConnectionString settings, the session key transfers successfully, yet the MVC application fails to retrieve the session data (resulting in a null sessionKey).

The Solution: Leveraging SQL Server's Native Session State

The recommended solution involves configuring both applications to utilize SQL Server's native session state management.

Configuring web.config:

Modify the web.config files of both applications as follows:

<code class="language-xml"><sessionState mode="SQLServer" sqlConnectionString="..."/></code>

Ensure the specified SQL Server instance is accessible to both applications and that the necessary session state database exists.

Adapting the Stored Procedure:

Adjust the TempGetAppID stored procedure within the session state database to dynamically retrieve the application name from the connection string. This allows applications with matching names to share sessions:

<code class="language-sql">@appId int OUTPUT
AS
    ...
    -- Dynamically obtain the application name from the connection string
    DECLARE @connStrAppName nvarchar(50)
    SET @connStrAppName = APP_NAME()
    ...</code>

Ensuring Consistent Machine Keys:

Both applications must employ the same machineKey settings, defined in their respective web.config files:

<code class="language-xml"><machineKey decryption="AES" validation="SHA1" validationKey="SOMEKEY"/></code>

By implementing these modifications, both applications can seamlessly share session data, utilizing identical session keys and maintaining consistent form authentication across applications.

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