URL Rewriting Session ID Length in iPlanet Application Server

Question

Hi there,
Does anyone know what the maximum length of the session ID value is when
using URL rewriting/encoding for session tracking (i.e.: ";jessionid=1234"
appended to the end of the URL) with iPlanet Application Server 6.0's
servlet container (or any previous versions)?
Does the length vary or is it fixed? And does WebSphere encode server or
failover information into the ID? WebLogic for instance, encodes the
primary and secondary failover servers into the ID when running in a
cluster)?
And finally, is there any way to restrict or specify the maximum length of
the session ID?
I ask this due to a limitation with some WAP clients & gateways which
prevents the URL from exceeding 128 characters.
Any info on this issue from iPlanet staff or anyone else is much
appreciated.
<background-info>
Please see the following links if you'd like some additional background:
http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs60/////wap/wapdev.html#1024984
under the heading "Session Tracking" at the bottom
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&safe=off&th=eb7f38aa5086972e,13&seekm=
8gaki8%247d5%241%40newsgroups.bea.com#p
</background-info>
Regards,
Sasha Haghani

Answer 1

Sasha Haghani wrote:
Hi there,
Does anyone know what the maximum length of the session ID value is when
using URL rewriting/encoding for session tracking (i.e.: ";jessionid=1234"
appended to the end of the URL) with iPlanet Application Server 6.0's
servlet container (or any previous versions)?
I'm fairly certain that it is fixed. 18 for the attibute, 16 for the value, plus
1 for the equals. (Plus 1 for the ? if it didn't already exist.)
So 35 or 36 depending on how you count it. Someone needs to verify this and
check my counting though.
>
Does the length vary or is it fixed? And does WebSphere encode server or
failover information into the ID? WebLogic for instance, encodes the
primary and secondary failover servers into the ID when running in a
cluster)?I don't know what WebSphere does. iAS does not encode failover information in
the ID. Because of the way session is propogated, no server information needs to
be embedded in the id.
>
And finally, is there any way to restrict or specify the maximum length of
the session ID?No.