Volley requests not working with Django Sessions

Question

I have a Django script running on the server that creates session variables for every request sent to the server. The script returns a specific value based on the previous stored session variables.

When I tested the script on the browser, the session on Django worked as per the requirement.

However, while using Volley to send the same request, the script considers every request as a new request without taking previous session variables into consideration.

    StringRequest stringRequest = new StringRequest(Request.Method.GET,Send_URL,
            new Response.Listener<String>() {
                @Override
                public void onResponse(String response) {
                    Response(response);
                }
            }, new Response.ErrorListener() {
        @Override
        public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
        }
    });
    requestQueue.add(stringRequest);
}

RequestQueue defined globally and context assigned in the onCreate() method

P.S I rechecked by requesting from the browser and it works. So there are no issues on the Django End.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Volley does not support Cookie by default. you should override StringRequest class as below shown:

public class StringRequest extends com.android.volley.toolbox.StringRequest {

private final Map<String, String> _params;

/**
 * @param method
 * @param url
 * @param params
 *            A {@link HashMap} to post with the request. Null is allowed
 *            and indicates no parameters will be posted along with request.
 * @param listener
 * @param errorListener
 */
public StringRequest(int method, String url, Map<String, String> params, Listener<String> listener,
        ErrorListener errorListener) {
    super(method, url, listener, errorListener);

    _params = params;
}

@Override
protected Map<String, String> getParams() {
    return _params;
}

/* (non-Javadoc)
 * @see com.android.volley.toolbox.StringRequest#parseNetworkResponse(com.android.volley.NetworkResponse)
 */
@Override
protected Response<String> parseNetworkResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
    // since we don't know which of the two underlying network vehicles
    // will Volley use, we have to handle and store session cookies manually
    MyApp.get().checkSessionCookie(response.headers);

    return super.parseNetworkResponse(response);
}

/* (non-Javadoc)
 * @see com.android.volley.Request#getHeaders()
 */
@Override
public Map<String, String> getHeaders() throws AuthFailureError {
    Map<String, String> headers = super.getHeaders();

    if (headers == null
            || headers.equals(Collections.emptyMap())) {
        headers = new HashMap<String, String>();
    }

    MyApp.get().addSessionCookie(headers);

    return headers;
}
}

and your application class:

public class MyApp extends Application {
    private static final String SET_COOKIE_KEY = "Set-Cookie";
    private static final String COOKIE_KEY = "Cookie";
    private static final String SESSION_COOKIE = "sessionid";

    private static MyApp _instance;
  private RequestQueue _requestQueue;
  private SharedPreferences _preferences;

    public static MyApp get() {
        return _instance;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        _instance = this;
            _preferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
        _requestQueue = Volley.newRequestQueue(this);
    }

    public RequestQueue getRequestQueue() {
        return _requestQueue;
    }


    /**
     * Checks the response headers for session cookie and saves it
     * if it finds it.
     * @param headers Response Headers.
     */
    public final void checkSessionCookie(Map<String, String> headers) {
        if (headers.containsKey(SET_COOKIE_KEY)
                && headers.get(SET_COOKIE_KEY).startsWith(SESSION_COOKIE)) {
                String cookie = headers.get(SET_COOKIE_KEY);
                if (cookie.length() > 0) {
                    String[] splitCookie = cookie.split(";");
                    String[] splitSessionId = splitCookie[0].split("=");
                    cookie = splitSessionId[1];
                    Editor prefEditor = _preferences.edit();
                    prefEditor.putString(SESSION_COOKIE, cookie);
                    prefEditor.commit();
                }
            }
    }

    /**
     * Adds session cookie to headers if exists.
     * @param headers
     */
    public final void addSessionCookie(Map<String, String> headers) {
        String sessionId = _preferences.getString(SESSION_COOKIE, "");
        if (sessionId.length() > 0) {
            StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
            builder.append(SESSION_COOKIE);
            builder.append("=");
            builder.append(sessionId);
            if (headers.containsKey(COOKIE_KEY)) {
                builder.append("; ");
                builder.append(headers.get(COOKIE_KEY));
            }
            headers.put(COOKIE_KEY, builder.toString());
        }
    }

}

also You can check this link for more ...

Answer 2

I had the same problem using volley library in other scripting language, You need to go through about volley library here ..

Additionally volley store the cache values by default,so your code did not work second time (that means return the same values)

so you can try HttpURLConnection default method to use this type of server actions.

Thanks hope its help!!!