Ruby On Rails sessions

An overview of Ruby on Rails sessions, including how to create, modify, and delete them with an example.

Ruby On Rails Sessions

Ruby on Rails sessions are used to store user-specific data in a server-side database. This data is used to keep track of user interactions and preferences. Sessions are typically stored in the database for a set period of time. Once the session is expired, the data is discarded.

The following example shows how to create a session in Ruby on Rails:

# Set session data
session[:user_id] = user.id

# Retrieve session data
user_id = session[:user_id]
user = User.find(user_id)

The first line sets a session variable called user_id to the id of the current user. The second line retrieves the user_id from the session and uses it to query the user record from the database.

The session data is then stored in the database and can be retrieved at any time. The data can also be modified, for example if a user's preferences are updated. It is important to remember to expire the session data after the desired period of time, as this will prevent the server from becoming overloaded with stale data.