MVC ASP.net session is null

Question

I have the following code which was ok until someone else put some other code in the site which sorta mucks it up now.

This is my code:

var existingContext = HttpContext.Current;
var writer = new StringWriter();
var response = new HttpResponse(writer);
var context = new HttpContext(existingContext.Request, response) { User = existingContext.User };
HttpContext.Current = context;
HttpContext.Current.SetSessionStateBehavior(System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateBehavior.Default);
HttpContext.Current.Session["Test"] = "test";
for (Int32 i = 0; i < existingContext.Session.Count; i++)
{
    HttpContext.Current.Session.Add(existingContext.Session.Keys[i], existingContext.Session[i]);
}

The idea behind this is to be able to capture the output of a view and render it to pdf. Now my only issue is that when i assign context back to HttpContext.Current, the session is null. I need to be able to initialize the session so that i can assign variables into it.

i will also add that this is inside a static class

public static class ControllerExtensions

Any clues?

sorry the code view thing mucked up a bit or i did something wrong the code should be: — , Sep 08 '10 at 14:44
var existingContext = HttpContext.Current; var writer = new StringWriter(); var response = new HttpResponse(writer); var context = new HttpContext(existingContext.Request, response) { User = existingContext.User }; HttpContext.Current = context; HttpContext.Current.Session["Test"] = "test"; for (Int32 i = 0; i < existingContext.Session.Count; i++) { HttpContext.Current.Session.Add(existingContext.Session.Keys[i], existingContext.Session[i]); } — , Sep 08 '10 at 14:45

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 08 '10 at 14:57

1

If this is occurring inside of an HttpHandler, you need to add the IRequiresSessionState interface to your handler for the session to be available -

public class HttpPdfWriteHandler : IHttpHandler, IRequiresSessionState {
     [...]
}

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.sessionstate.irequiressessionstate.aspx

answered Sep 08 '10 at 14:57

The Moof

794
4
10

unfortunately this is occurring inside a static class public static class ControllerExtensions – Sep 08 '10 at 15:02
i got the original code from: http://www.jimzimmerman.com/blog/2009/10/06/PdfResult+A+Custom+ActionResult+In+ASPNET+MVC.aspx and http://jamesmcc.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/pdfresult-a-custom-actionresult-in-asp-net-mvc2-updated/ – Sep 08 '10 at 15:08

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '10 at 15:30

I seem to have solved the issue for now and that was to remove the lines:

            var context = new HttpContext(existingContext.Request, response) { User = existingContext.User };
        HttpContext.Current = context;
        HttpContext.Current.Request.
        for (Int32 i = 0; i < existingContext.Session.Count; i++)
        {
            HttpContext.Current.Session.Add(existingContext.Session.Keys[i], existingContext.Session[i]);
        }

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:28

1) Start–> Administrative Tools –> Services

2) right click over the ASP.NET State Service and click “start”

*additionally you could set the service to automatic so that it will work after a reboot.

For more details you can check my blog post: http://jamshidhashimi.com/2011/03/16/unable-to-make-the-session-state-request-to-the-session-state-server/ ref: Unable to make the session state request to the session state server

MVC ASP.net session is null

3 Answers3

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