5B. Saving State

It is necessary to give the surfer a quick response, regardless of how long the charging phone call takes. While the call typically takes less than 5 seconds, during peak times it can go slower.

Therefore a quick response page is provided immediately. When that page is generated, the approval status is not yet known.

To make things as convenient as possible, the web application provides a link which, when clicked, either takes the surfer to a "not yet" page, or to the actual approved/denied page.

The state of the surfer's transaction is maintained on the server. It is not sent over insecure lines or dependent on cookies. Instead a numbering technique is used to assign each surfer a unique Session ID, to which his or her data is associated. This Session ID is visible in the URL:

http://www.href.com/ssl/webhub.exe?ICV:CCSTATUS:392032

The components within the web application must restore state for surfer 392032 when he or she returns, and then respond accordingly.


     
Copyright (c) 1997 HREF Tools Corp. All Rights Reserved.
Permission granted to Borland for use at the 1997 Borland Developer's Conference.
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