Maintaining Sessions and Authentication in HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET

Supported technologies: Adobe Flash

If you are going to utilize Flash Uploader in non-Internet Explorer browsers (Firefox, Safari, etc.), you should take care about keeping your session and authentication cookies saved if they are used. The fact is that Flash Uploader does not send cookies in output requests in non-Internet Explorer browsers by default and, therefore, session and authentication tickets are lost during the upload. To work around this problem you can employ special facilities provided either by HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET or HTML5/Flash Uploader JavaScript. Let us consider how to use them.

Using HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET

If you use HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET, session and authentication information will be automatically passed to the upload request. If you are unfamiliar with HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET, please, see the Quick Start with HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET topic.

To restore passed cookies server-side you need to add UploaderModule module to your web.config, like follows:

XML
<configuration>
   <!-- other sections -->
   <system.web>
        <!-- other sections -->
	<!-- IIS6 or IIS7 in Classic mode -->
        <httpModules>
            <!-- other modules -->
            <add name="UploaderModule" type="Aurigma.ImageUploaderFlash.UploaderModule"/>
        </httpModules>
        <!-- other sections -->
   </system.web>
   <!-- other sections -->
   <system.webServer>
        <!-- other sections -->
	<!-- IIS7 in Integrated mode --> 
	<!-- 	Remove <httpModules> and uncomment this section 
		if you use Integrated mode instead of Classic. 
		You can check the pipeline mode in the 
		Application Pool basic settings.

		Alternatively, you can add this param (not recommended): 
		<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>

        <modules>
            <add name="UploaderModule" type="Aurigma.ImageUploaderFlash.UploaderModule"/>
        </modules>
	-->
        <!-- other sections -->
   </system.webServer>
   <!-- other sections -->
</configuration>

In order to configure the ASP.NET authentication scheme you should add the authentication section to your web.config, for example, like it is shown in the following example:

XML
<authentication mode="Forms">
  <forms name="AurigmaUser" loginUrl="~/Login.aspx" defaultUrl="~/Default.aspx"
         protection="All" path="/" timeout="525600"/>
</authentication>

Using HTML5/Flash Uploader JavaScript API

If you prefer not to use HTML5/Flash Uploader ASP.NET, then you should add cookies to the upload request manually via the HTML5/Flash Uploader JavaScript. To do this, use the metadata.addCustomField(String, String, Boolean) method which accepts cookie in the following format: "cookieName=cookieValue". The most convenient place to call this method is the BeforeUpload event handler, because this event fires when the upload is about to be started.

JavaScript
function beforeUploadHandler(){
    var fu = $au.imageUploaderFlash('Uploader1');
    fu.metadata().addCustomField('ASP.NET_SessionId','<%=Page.Session.SessionID%>',true);
    fu.metadata().addCustomField('<%=FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName%>',
        '<%=Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName].Value %>',true);
};

var fu = $au.imageUploaderFlash({
    id: 'Uploader1',
    events: { beforeUpload: beforeUploadHandler}
});

fu.writeHtml();

The previous example uses ASP.NET_SessionId as session cookie name, because it is default name for this cookie in ASP.NET. However, you may determine the session cookie name programatically, as follows:

C#
((System.Web.Configuration.SessionStateSection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.web/sessionState")).CookieName

To restore passed cookies server-side you need to add UploaderModule module to your web.config, like follows:

XML
<configuration>
   <!-- other sections -->
   <system.web>
        <!-- other sections -->
	<!-- IIS6 or IIS7 in Classic mode -->
        <httpModules>
            <!-- other modules -->
            <add name="UploaderModule" type="Aurigma.ImageUploaderFlash.UploaderModule"/>
        </httpModules>
        <!-- other sections -->
   </system.web>
   <!-- other sections -->
   <system.webServer>
        <!-- other sections -->
	<!-- IIS7 in Integrated mode --> 
	<!-- 	Remove <httpModules> and uncomment this section 
		if you use Integrated mode instead of Classic. 
		You can check the pipeline mode in the 
		Application Pool basic settings.

		Alternatively, you can add this param (not recommended): 
		<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>

        <modules>
            <add name="UploaderModule" type="Aurigma.ImageUploaderFlash.UploaderModule"/>
        </modules>
	-->
        <!-- other sections -->
   </system.webServer>
   <!-- other sections -->
</configuration>

See Also

Reference

Manual