243409 - Switching between sessions to same server in separate tabs times out session

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 219984

(SeaMonkey :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Paul S Adams]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040421
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040421

Our intranet uses a server that serves both a job system and web mail.  It does
NOT use cookies to track sessions (PHP based server).  Bug 219984 refers to this
issue related to cookies - this is NOT.  When I switch from one session (on one
tab) to the other session, the first session expires.

Apparently, the session information and the tab are not related, only the
session and the server.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open session to web site on one tab.
2. Open a second tab.
3. Open a second (but discrete) session to the same web site.
4. Switch back to the first tab and attempt to transact on this session.

Actual Results:  
The session is expired - the web server requests login credentials again. 
Similarly, switching back to the second tab has the same result.

Apparently, the session information and the tab are not related, only the
session and the server.

Expected Results:  
Each session to the server should be associated with the tab.

The session information and the tab should be related, not only the session and
the server.

Bug 219984 relates, but specifically refers to cookies.  This report is NOT
related to cookies and I could find none that reported the same problem but not
related to cookies.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> It does NOT use cookies to track sessions (PHP based server)

How _does_ it track sessions, then?

If the server is not using cookies, then the session is being tracked completely
server-side, and the server has no knowledge of tabs, now does it?

Comment 2

[Paul S Adams]

> If the server is not using cookies, then the session is being tracked
completely server-side, and the server has no knowledge of tabs, now does it?

No - but it does have a knowledge of applications.

As already explained, these are two separate applications, one a job system and
the other web mail.  I open the job system in one tab and the web mail in another.

Therefore, if I open two sessions from the same IP to the same application, I do
expect timeout issues.  I will test with two different browser applications and
let you know what I find.

As an clarification to my original posting, it makes no difference whether it is
on separate tabs or separate windows.

Comment 3

[Paul S Adams]

Ok - that is called "don't believe your programmer".  He advised me that the
session tracking was not done by cookies.

However, it is.  I have Internet Explorer set to ask for permission to set all
cookies - and the web mail application did.

Marking this as a duplicate of Bug 219984.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 219984 ***