Sessions

The AuthFeature (plugin) already enables the SessionFeature, but if you want to make use of sessions and don't want to enable the built-in Authentication, you will need to register it manually in your AppHost with:

public override void Configure(Container container)
{
    Plugins.Add(new SessionFeature());
}

Cookie Session Ids​

When the SessionFeature is enabled, a Global RequestFilter is added to ServiceStack to ensure that all requests have a Temporary ss-id and a Permanent ss-pid session cookies set. These Session Cookies contain a unique Random Base64-encoded Id. The ss-opt cookie stores the users preference on whether they want their current session to be temporary (ss-opt=temp) or permanent (ss-opt=perm) - i.e. to RememberMe or not - The Default is Temporary.

Permanent and Temporary Session Ids​

The Permanent session cookie ss-pid is always created even if ss-opt is Temporary - this allows you to link and track subsequent requests together which can be helpful for user request analyzing. In contrast the temporary Session Id ss-id uses a temporary cookie that does not persist across a users browser sessions.

If you're interested in the implementation, all the source code for ServiceStack's Sessions are kept in the ISession, SessionFeature, SessionFactory, SessionExtensions and ServiceExtensions classes.

Can be used with any ICacheClient​

ServiceStack's implementation of Sessions are clean, in that they work with all of ServiceStack's Caching Providers and are simply pointers to POCOs in your Cache.

Formatting of Keys used in Cache Providers​

For typed or Custom AuthSession the key is:

urn:iauthsession:{sessionId}

When using un-typed Session Bag the key is:

sess:{sessionId}:{key}

The general recommendation is to use typed sessions, which will give you type-safety benefits as well as being able to fetch your entire users session with a single cache call. If you use the dynamic/session bag then it will be a network call for each key accessed - although as caches are designed for fast-access, this isn't too much of a concern.

In code IRequest.GetSessionId() returns the right ss-id/ss-pid for that request so you can programmatically access the session key and session for a request directly from the registered cache with:

var sessionKey = SessionFeature.GetSessionKey(httpReq.GetSessionId());
var session = await httpReq.GetCacheClientAsync().GetAsync<IAuthSession>(sessionKey);

Auth with Request AuthProviders​

Auth Providers that authenticate with each request that implement IAuthWithRequest like JWT, API Key and BasicAuthProvider don't persist Users Sessions in the cache, they're only in the IRequest and only last for the duration of the Request.

Overriding a User Session​

This alternative solution for populating a Users Session on each request can be utilized by injecting an authenticated UserSession in:

IRequest req = base.Request;
req.Items[Keywords.Session] = usersSession;

Using Typed Sessions in ServiceStack​

An example of using Typed Sessions is in the Social Bootstrap Api demo where a CustomUserSession is defined as:

[DataContract]
public class CustomUserSession : AuthUserSession 
{
    [DataMember]
    public string CustomId { get; set; }
}

By inheriting AuthUserSession you're able to keep all the users session together in 1 POCO, which allows you to access everything in 1 cache read or write.

To tell ServiceStack to use your Custom Typed Session instead, register it in the AuthFeature plugin:

Plugins.Add(new AuthFeature(() => new CustomUserSession(), ...));

Session events​

Inheriting from the AuthUserSession also lets you add custom logic for different events in the User Session life-cycle:

// Fired when a new Session is created
void OnCreated(IRequest httpReq) {}

// Called after new sessions are hydrated, can be used to populate session with more info at runtime
void OnLoad(IRequest httpReq) {}

// Called when the user is registered or on the first OAuth login
void OnRegistered(IRequest httpReq, IAuthSession session, IServiceBase service) {}

// Called after the user has successfully authenticated
void OnAuthenticated(IServiceBase authService, IAuthSession session, IAuthTokens tokens, 
    Dictionary<string, string> authInfo) {}

// Fired before the session is removed after the /auth/logout Service is called
void OnLogout(IServiceBase authService) {}

// Override with Custom Validation logic to Assert if User is allowed to Authenticate. 
// Returning a non-null response invalidates Authentication with IHttpResult response returned to client.
IHttpResult Validate(IServiceBase authService, IAuthSession session, 
    IAuthTokens tokens, Dictionary<string, string> authInfo);

Auth Events​

The same authentication hooks that are available in the Custom UserSession above are also available in IAuthEvents API:

public interface IAuthEvents
{
    void OnRegistered(IRequest req, IAuthSession session, IServiceBase registerService);
    void OnAuthenticated(IRequest req, IAuthSession session, IServiceBase authService, 
        IAuthTokens tokens, Dictionary<string, string> authInfo);
    void OnLogout(IRequest req, IAuthSession session, IServiceBase authService);
    void OnCreated(IRequest req, IAuthSession session);
}

The new AuthEvents API provide a loose-typed way where plugins can tap into the same hooks by registering it with AuthFeature.AuthEvents, e.g:

public class WebSudoFeature : IPlugin, IAuthEvents
{
    public void Register(IAppHost appHost)
    {
        ...
        var authFeature = appHost.GetPlugin<AuthFeature>();
        authFeature.AuthEvents.Add(this);
    }

    // Add implementations of all `IAuthEvents` handlers
    public void OnCreated(IRequest httpReq, IAuthSession session) { ... }
}

An alternative way for accessing IAuthEvents is to register it like a normal dependency, e.g:

container.RegisterAs<LogAuthEvents,IAuthEvents>();

To simplify custom implementations you can inherit from the empty concrete AuthEvents and choose to only implement the callbacks you're interested in, e.g:

public class LogAuthEvents : AuthEvents
{
    public static ILog Log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(LogAuthEvents));

    public override void OnLogout(IRequest httpReq, IAuthSession session, IServiceBase authService) 
    {
        Log.DebugFormat("User #{0} {1} has logged out", session.UserAuthId, session.UserName);
    }
}

UserSession validation​

Custom User Sessions can override AuthUserSession.Validate() to add additional logic for validating whether to allow a User to Authenticate, e.g:

public class CustomUserSession : AuthUserSession
{
    public override IHttpResult Validate(IServiceBase authService, IAuthSession session, 
        IAuthTokens tokens, Dictionary<string, string> authInfo)
    {
        if (!ValidateEmail(session.Email))
            return HttpError.BadRequest($"{nameof(session.Email)} is invalid") as IHttpResult;
        
        return null;
    }
}

Returning any IHttpResult will cause Authentication to fail with the returned IHttpResult written to the response.

Accessing Typed Session​

You can access your custom UserAuth session inside your service using the SesssionAs<T>() extension method, e.g:

public abstract class MyService : Service 
{
    public object Get(MyRequest request)
    {
        var typedSession = this.SessionAs<CustomUserSession>();
    }
}

Adding a Convenience wrapper​

To provide a typed, Convenient API for your service you can add the following to a base class, here's SocialBootstrapApi's AppServiceBase example:

public abstract class AppServiceBase : Service {
    private CustomUserSession userSession;
    protected CustomUserSession UserSession {
        get {
            return base.SessionAs<CustomUserSession>();
        }
    }
}

This will then enable you to access your users Session in your ServiceStack services with base.UserSession.

Cookie Filters​

Customization of Cookies can be enabled by overriding the host-specific methods in your AppHost:

//ASP.NET Core
public override void CookieOptionsFilter(Cookie cookie, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.CookieOptions cookieOptions) {}

//Classic ASP.NET
public override void HttpCookieFilter(HttpCookie cookie) {}

Enable Same Site Cookies​

Same Site Cookies are a good default to use in your Apps which restricts cookies from being sent cross-site in order to prevent against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.

It can be configured in your AppHost with:

SetConfig(new HostConfig
{
    UseSameSiteCookies = true
});

This restriction will prevent features reliant on cross-site cookies from working so you'll need to verify it's safe to enable in your Apps. This restriction works with most Auth Providers except for TwitterAuthProvider who doesn't yet support the OAuth state callback that could be used instead of Session cookies.

Secure Cookies enabled by default​

Secure Cookies ensure that Cookies added over HTTPS are only resent in subsequent secure connections.

They're enabled by default for Cookies added over SSL, they can be disabled with:

Plugins.Add(new HostConfig {
    UseSecureCookies = false
});

Sharing ServiceStack's Typed Sessions in MVC and ASP.NET​

ASP.NET's Session Provider model still maintains its old legacy .NET 1.0 roots with it's heavy XML-encumbered config model, it's coupled and un-testable API, and its degrading performance limitations by design makes it difficult for any web service framework to share the same User Sessions with the base ASP.NET Web Forms or MVC web host.

ServiceStack gets around these limitations by providing its own de-coupled, testable and dependency-free ICacheClient and ISession APIs - which all work simply together as they're just plain Guid Session Keys stored in Caches pointing to POCOs.

The method SessionFeature.GetSessionKey allows you to get a Session Key for a current request if you are trying to access it in ASP.NET Web Forms or MVC web host. Using a Session Key you can have a full control over Session object:

// CacheClient is instance of ICacheClient

var sessionKey = SessionFeature.GetSessionKey();

// getting an existing User Session or create a new one 
var userSession = SessionFeature.GetOrCreateSession<AuthUserSession>(CacheClient); 
// or SessionFeature.GetOrCreateSession<CustomUserSession>(CacheClient); 

Saving in Service​

As a typed session is just a disconnected POCO, it needs to explicitly saved to be persisted - which you can do with the base.SaveSession() Extension method.

public async Task<object> Any(Request request)
{
    var session = await base.SessionAsAsync<AuthUserSession>();

    // modify session

    await base.Request.SaveSessionAsync(session);
}

Saving outside a Service​

If your logic is outside a ServiceStack service you can save your typed session by getting access to the ServiceStack IRequest which you can create from ASP.NET Request objects:

IHttpRequest httpReq = aspCtx.ToRequest(); //HttpContext
IHttpRequest httpReq = aspReq.ToRequest(); //MVC HttpRequestBase
IHttpRequest httpReq = netCoreCtx.ToRequest(); //.NET Core HttpContext
IHttpRequest httpReq = listenerCtx.ToRequest(); //HttpListenerContext

//In ASP.NET hosts via the singleton
IHttpRequest httpReq = HostContext.AppHost.TryGetCurrentRequest(); 

Once you have access to the current IRequest you can save your typed session using the SaveSessionAsync() extension method:

await httpReq.SaveSessionAsync(session);

This API is also available in MVC Controllers that inherit ServiceStackController or ASP.NET Pages that inherit ServiceStackPage:

await base.SaveSessionAsync(session);

Intercept Saving Sessions​

Each time the Session is saved it's saved again with the default Session Expiry which can be specified on the top-level AuthFeature.SessionExpiry for temp Sessions or AuthFeature.PermanentSessionExpiry for permanent "Remember Me" Sessions.

For fine-grained control you can intercept each time a Session is saved and change what Session Expiry it's saved with by overriding OnSaveSessionAsync in your AppHost:

public override Task OnSaveSessionAsync(
    IRequest httpReq, IAuthSession session, TimeSpan? expiresIn = null, CancellationToken token=default)
{
    var customExpiry = ...
    base.OnSaveSessionAsync(httpReq, session, customExpiry, token);
}

Sliding Sessions​

You can extend existing User Sessions in ServiceStack by just re-saving the Users Session. This can be done anywhere in ServiceStack's Request Pipeline, E.g. in a Request or Response Filter Attribute or Global Request or Response Filter:

E.g. here's a Sliding Sessions example using a custom [SlideExpiration] Response Filter Attribute:

public class SlidingSessionAttribute : ResponseFilterAsyncAttribute
{
    public TimeSpan? Expiry { get; set; }

	public SlidingSessionAttribute(int expirySecs=0)
	{
		this.Expiry = expirySecs <= 0
            ? (TimeSpan?)null 
            : TimeSpan.FromSeconds(expirySecs);
	}

    public override async Task ExecuteAsync(IRequest req, IResponse res, object response)
    {
        var session = await req.GetSessionAsync();
        if (session != null) 
            await req.SaveSessionAsync(session, this.Expiry);
    }
}

Which can be applied to any protected User Services, e.g:

[Authenticate]
[SlidingSession(10 * 60)] //= 10 minutes
public class UserServices : Service
{
    public object Any(MyUserRequest request) => ...;
}

Which just re-saves the Session in order to extend it with a new Session Expiry, this can instead be done in a Global Response Filter with:

GlobalResponseFiltersAsync.Add(async (req, res, dto) => {
    var session = await req.GetSessionAsync();
    if (session != null)
        await req.SaveSessionAsync(session, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10));
});

Find the remaining time left before a Session expires​

For Cache Clients that implement you can retrieve the ICacheClientExtended.GetTimeToLive() returns a TimeSpan? which will return:

• null if no key exists
• TimeSpan.MaxValue if there is no expiry set on the key
• or a TimeSpan value with the time remaining before the key is set to expire

So you can determine the remaining time on a Session by querying the Time To Live remaining on the Session Key in the Cache which you could use to extend the Users Session by 10 minutes if they have less than 10 minutes remaining:

var sessionId = req.GetSessionId(); 
var sessionKey = SessionFeature.GetSessionKey(sessionId);
var ttl = req.GetCacheClient().GetTimeToLive(sessionKey);

if (ttl != null && ttl <= TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10)) 
{
    var session = await req.GetSessionAsync();
    await req.SaveSessionAsync(session, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10));
}

Typed Sessions in MVC​

To make use of it in MVC, you effectively do the same thing, although this time you can simply inherit the existing ServiceStackController which has the above templated code in a generic MVC Controller Template:

public class ControllerBase : ServiceStackController<CustomUserSession> {}

From there it's just a basic property which you can use in your Controller or assign to your views like this:

public partial class HomeController : ControllerBase 
{
    public virtual ActionResult Index() 
    {
        ViewBag.Message = "MVC + ServiceStack PowerPack!";
        ViewBag.UserSession = base.UserSession;
        return View();
    }   
}

Typed Sessions in ASP.NET Web Forms​

It's the same thing in ASP.NET Web Forms although this comes in the form of a base ASP.NET Web Page which you get for free when you install ServiceStack via the ServiceStack.Host.AspNet NuGet package.

Using Dynamic / Untyped Sessions in Session Bag​

You can access the dynamic UserSession Bag in ServiceStack services via the base.SessionBag property already built-in ServiceStack's Service base class, e.g:

await base.SessionBagAsync.SetAsync("cart", new Cart { ... });
var cart = await base.SessionBagAsync.GetAsync<Cart>("cart");

Use HTTP Headers to Send Session Cookies​

You can now make a Session-enabled request with HTTP Headers instead of Cookies. The Session HTTP Headers have a X- prefix before the Session Id, i.e: X-ss-id, X-ss-pid and X-ss-opts.

Inspecting persisted User Sessions​

ServiceStack Sessions are just serialized POCO's stored in the Registered ICacheClient at the following key:

urn:iauthsession:{SessionId}

Where {SessionId} is either the users ss-id or ss-pid cookie depending on whether the user was authenticated with RememberMe=true which instructs ServiceStack to save the session against the ss-pid permanent cookie - this preference is stored in the ss-opt=perm cookie.

Since they're just plain POCO's stored at a predictable key format, we can easily iterate through all user sessions by using the ICacheClient API's directly, e.g:

var sessionPattern = IdUtils.CreateUrn<IAuthSession>(""); //= urn:iauthsession:
var sessionKeys = Cache.GetKeysStartingWith(sessionPattern).ToList();

var allSessions = Cache.GetAll<IAuthSession>(sessionKeys);

Community Resources​

• Sliding session expirations in ServiceStack by @teadriven
• Accessing ASP.NET Session from ServiceStack by @yeurch
• REST Web Services with ServiceStack by Jacques du Preez