A session is a series of requests or transactions that come from the same client, and are part of the same logical sequence.

The first time a client accesses a Web Connection part, VA Smalltalk generates a random session key that identifies the session that has just started. The session key is then passed to the client Web browser in a hidden HTML field. When the user finishes entering data and presses a submit button, the session key is posted back to the VA Smalltalk application. Web Connection then uses the key to identify the latest request as belonging to the same session as the previous request. In this way, Web Connection can keep track of multiple sessions from different clients at the same time.

If your page includes a CGI Link Session Data part, VA Smalltalk creates a new object of the appropriate class each time a new session begins. The object remains valid for the duration of the session. Any subsequent requests with the same session key will have access to the same object (provided a CGI Link Session Data part is available).

A session ends when a specified amount of time has elapsed since the last request in that session. You can set the timeout value using the lifeTimeSeconds property of the CGI Link Session Data part.