►Q for Support◄ Guest User VS. User w/ Guest Access Level?

BenHayat

@Support;

As we know, when trying to get to the system using Guest user, we have to deal with two cases:
1) For Guest user without any logins, we have to maintain Session Data.
2) We can't test Guest user in Test mode.

Support's recent post (As it's also documented), we can solve # 2 by creating a dummy user with Access level = Guest, then we can login and test all the features assigned to that level.

I have several VP's with different names, and menus all pointing to Guest Access Level.
For production:
a) I can use something like this

http://ABC_Corp.Com:8080/AwareIM/logonGuest.aw?domain=AH&perspective=Vendor_Registration_Desktop

to open up a specific VP for my domain.[/b]

b) I can create a dummy userName=Vendor_Reg, Password=p provide the domain and VP like the following

http://ABC_Corp.Com:8080/AwareIM/logonOp.aw?domain=AH&perspective=Vendor_Registration_Desktop&userName=Vendor_Reg&password=p

And Vendor Guest doesn't need to log in and I don't need to maintain session data.
[/b]

My question is, which is a better and safer way to go with? Is there anything wrong with going with method b? Will I get into trouble if multiple people all log in as Vendor_Reg?

I think a detailed answer will clear up this whole notion of Guest user VS. User with Guest Access Level.
Note: I have 8 different VP's all tied to Guest Access Level.

Thank you in advance!

BenHayat

Support, when you get a chance, please shed some light on this question, trying to see which direction is better from the AwareIM engineering POV.

Thanks!

aware_support

Generally you should avoid creating a dummy user to represent a guest. If several users are logged in as the same user at the same time they will be sharing the "LoggedInSystemUser" instance which can cause problems (depending on what your application is doing). However, if you are careful and avoid problems related to sharing the logged in user instance you can go down this path (for example, you never change this instance in your app and do not store any session data in this instance).

If you have to store session data for guests the generally it is safer to store session data for guests in a special object that you create every time as explained in one of the previous threads.

BenHayat

aware_support wrote
Generally you should avoid creating a dummy user to represent a guest. If several users are logged in as the same user at the same time they will be sharing the "LoggedInSystemUser" instance which can cause problems (depending on what your application is doing). However, if you are careful and avoid problems related to sharing the logged in user instance you can go down this path (for example, you never change this instance in your app and do not store any session data in this instance).

If you have to store session data for guests the generally it is safer to store session data for guests in a special object that you create every time as explained in one of the previous threads.

Yes, yes! I'm with your recommendations. IF I manage NOT to store any data in that instance, then I "might" use a dummy user.
But, thank you for the clarification and what I have to watch for.

I'm starting a new project, and I have a totally different approach how to use Aware after all my past two years learning. I'm a performance & optimize freak and this time around, I'm very careful how and when to use rules.

Like you said, somewhere, starting V7, we're into a new generation of AwareIM.