[Exist-open] MVC: errors when jsessionid is passed in URL

[Ron V. d. B. <ron...@ka...>]

Hi,

In cutting loose my last Cocoon ties, I'm struggling with a nasty 
detail. I've found that adding a "jsessionid" path parameter to the URL 
causes problems to eXist's MVC mechanism (I'm testing with eXist-trunk, 
rev. 15640).

(I need access to existing sessions for http:send-request() calls that 
export stored search results in a zip file. That's why I ended up adding 
the "jsessionid" path parameter to all <http:request> URLs passed to 
http:send-request().)

This behaviour also occurs in the shipped eXist webapp, so I gather it 
might be broader than just my issue. Take, for example following URL: 
<http://localhost:8080/exist/urlrewrite.xml>, which correctly returns 
the MVC documentation page. However, when a jsessionid path parameter is 
added, as in 
<http://localhost:8080/exist/urlrewrite.xml;jsessionid=123>, the Jetty 
server returns a "404 not found" status. On Tomcat, this produces an error:

   javax.servlet.ServletException: An error occurred: Cannot forward after response has been committed
	  org.exist.http.urlrewrite.XQueryURLRewrite.doFilter(XQueryURLRewrite.java:379)

   java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot forward after response has been committed
   	  org.exist.http.urlrewrite.Forward.doRewrite(Forward.java:47)
	  org.exist.http.urlrewrite.XQueryURLRewrite.doRewrite(XQueryURLRewrite.java:560)
	  org.exist.http.urlrewrite.XQueryURLRewrite.applyViews(XQueryURLRewrite.java:410)
	  org.exist.http.urlrewrite.XQueryURLRewrite.doFilter(XQueryURLRewrite.java:354)

According to the {$exist_webapps}/controller.xql file, this request is 
just forwarded to the XSLTservlet, which transforms the XML source with 
the db2xhtml.xsl stylesheet (see line 110 and following of 
<http://exist.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/exist/trunk/eXist/webapp/controller.xql?revision=14656&view=markup>). 


OTOH, it appears that the jsessionid path parameter *is* honoured for 
requests that are forwarded to the XQueryServlet. Take for example 
<http://localhost:8080/exist/urlrewrite.xml;jsessionid=123?q=.>. Here, 
the "q" request parameter causes the request to be forwarded to an 
XQuery script that will search this document from the db (see line 91 
and following of 
<http://exist.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/exist/trunk/eXist/webapp/controller.xql?revision=14656&view=markup>). 
I found the same behaviour in my app: requests that are finally 
processed by the XQueryServlet are fine when the URL contains the 
"jsessionid" path parameter (and I can tell from my app that in those 
cases the sessions are accessed correctly). All others with fail when 
"jsessionid" is in the URL.

I've tested with totally non-eXist related webapps on Tomcat by adding a 
"jsessionid" path parameter to the URL and all pass without problems, so 
I guess this really is an eXist issue.

Does anyone know a fix/workaround (much appreciated!)?

Kind regards,

Ron

-- 
Ron Van den Branden
Wetenschappelijk attaché / Senior Researcher
Reviews Editor LLC. The Journal of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities

Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie - CTB (KANTL)
Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies
Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde
Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature
Koningstraat 18 / b-9000 Gent / Belgium
tel: +32 9 265 93 51 / fax: +32 9 265 93 49
E-mail : ron...@ka...
http://www.kantl.be/ctb