Web server for managing session and method thereof

A system comprising a plurality of web servers and a dispatcher device for selectively assigning an HTTP request received from a terminal device to any of the web servers,

• each web server comprising:
• a storage unit for storing a session state which indicates progress of processing in response to a plurality of HTTP requests sequentially received from the terminal device;
• a reception unit for receiving the session state in association with a primary HTTP request from the terminal device, in response to assignment by the dispatcher device;
• a storing unit for storing the received session state in a storage area within the storage unit, which is accessed as an HTTP session object by a processing program performing processing in response to the received primary HTTP request;
• an access unit for accessing the stored session state in response to execution of an instruction to access the HTTP session object, contained in the processing program;
• and
• a return unit for reading the session state from the storage unit in response to execution of an instruction to return a primary HTTP response, which is contained in the processing program, setting the session state to the primary HTTP response as a parameter to be transmitted by the terminal device in association with a secondary HTTP request, and returning the set primary HTTP response to the terminal device.

A method of performing processing in response to a HTTP request received from a terminal device, in a web server comprising a storage unit for storing a session state which indicates progress of processing in response to a plurality of HTTP requests sequentially received from the terminal device, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving the session state in association with a primary HTTP request from the terminal device;
• storing the received session state in a storage area within the storage unit, which is accessed as an HTTP session object by a processing program performing processing in response to the received primary HTTP request;
• accessing the stored session state in response to execution of an instruction to access the HTTP session object, contained in the processing program;
• and
• reading the session state from the storage unit in response to execution of an instruction to return a primary HTTP response, which is contained in the processing program, setting the primary HTTP response as a parameter to be transmitted by the terminal device in association with a secondary HTTP request, and returning the set primary HTTP response to the terminal device.

A computer program tangibly embodied for causing an information processor to function as:

• a storage unit for storing a session state which indicates progress of processing in response to a plurality of HTTP requests sequentially received from the terminal device;
• a reception unit for receiving the session state in association with a primary HTTP request from the terminal device;
• a storing unit for storing the received session state in a storage area within the storage unit, which is accessed as an HTTP session object by a processing program performing processing in response to the received primary HTTP request;
• an access unit for accessing the stored session state in response to execution of an instruction to access the HTTP session object, contained in the processing program;
• and
• a return unit for reading the session state from the storage unit in response to execution of an instruction to return a primary HTTP response, which is contained in the processing program, setting the session state to the primary HTTP response as a parameter to be transmitted by the terminal device in association with a secondary HTTP request, and returning the set primary HTTP response to the terminal device.