FlexContext.getFlexClient() returns an invalid object

[Robert_Csiki]

I have this Flex client application I'm trying to implement
the Logout function for. This client has both HTTP and RTMP
connections to the server. So when the user presses the Logout
button in client, I'm trying to invalidate both HTTP and RTMP
sessions on the FDS so the FlexClient would get invalidated.

The behavior on the client is the Login screen pops up so the
user can login again if they want. The problem is, if they do so,
the following happens on the FDS side:



- connecting via the HTTP channel will result in
FlexContext.getFlexClient() call returning a new FlexClient object
(that is correct), with the newly created Http flex session



- aftarwards, trying to connect via the RTMP channel, will
result in FlexContext.getFlexClient() call returning
the old FlexClient object (that is, the one used on the
previous session, before the user pressed the Logout), wich is in
an
invalid state and has no sessions associated. Everything
would fail using this FlexClient. More over, here
FlexContext.getFlexSession() returns the new RTMPFlexSession object
(which is correct), but this session has no FlexClient objects
associated (the getFlexClients() call returns an empty list)!



My question is why would FDS do that?? Why is
FlexContext.getFlexClient() returning an old, invalidated
FlexClient object? It looks odd to me. I'm using LiveCycle Data
Services ES 2.5.1 on the backend, deployed on Tomcat 5.5



Thanks.

Robert

[Former Community Member]

Hi Robert,



Are you sure that the RTMPFlexSession for the old FlexClient
has been invalidated? The easiest way to figure out which sessions
are created/destroyed during your test is to turn LCDS debug
logging on with "Endpoint.FlexSession" filter. I'm curious to see
the debug log with your test case.



Secondly, there's a FlexClient timeout configuration value
that is set in services-config.xml as follows:



<flex-client>

<!--

Each Flex application that connects to the server triggers
the creation of a

FlexClient instance that represents the remote client
application.

If timeout-minutes is left undefined or set to 0, FlexClient
instances on the server

are shutdown once all associated FlexSessions (corresponding
to connections between

the client and server) are shutdown.

If this value is defined, FlexClient instances will be kept
alive for this amount of

idle time.

FlexClient instances that have an associated RTMP
connection/session that is open are

kept alive even if they are idle because the open connection
indicates that the remote

client application is still running.

For Http connections/sessions, if the remote client
application is polling this keeps

the FlexClient alive.

If the remote client is not polling and a FlexClient
instance is idle for this amount of time

it is shut down even if an associated HttpSession is still
valid. This is because multiple

Flex client applications may share a single HttpSession so a
valid HttpSession does not indicate

that a specific client application instance is still
running.

-->

<timeout-minutes>45</timeout-minutes>

</flex-client>



I'm not sure if this is related to your test case but
something to keep in mind.

[Ansire]

>>This is because multiple Flex client applications may
share a single HttpSession so a valid HttpSession does not indicate



That is an interesting part. Is there a way to avoid sharing
sessions between multiple client apps? May be some config
settings?

[Robert_Csiki]

Hello Mete,



Yes, the RTMP session gets invalidated. Here is my Logout
method:



public void doLogout()

{

// get the FlexClient associated to this request

FlexClient thisFlexClient = FlexContext.getFlexClient();



// get all the sessions associated to this client

List sessions = thisFlexClient.getFlexSessions();



// contains all the FlexClient associated to this session

List sharedClients = null;



// invalidate all the Flex Sessions for this client

for (Iterator iter = sessions.iterator() ; iter.hasNext();)

{

// get the next Flex Session

FlexSession fs = (FlexSession)iter.next();



// check if it is the Http Flex Session

if (fs instanceof flex.messaging.HttpFlexSession)

{

// get the shared Flex clients for this Http Flex session

sharedClients = fs.getFlexClients();

}



// invalidate this Flex Session

fs.invalidate();

}



// now search for other non-Http Flex sessions (e.g. RMPT
ones) associated

// to Flex clients that shared the same Http Flex session
(e.g. multiple browser instances)

// and invalidate them all, to force the correspondent Flex
clients to get invalidated

if (sharedClients.size() > 1)

{

for (Iterator iter2 = sharedClients.iterator() ;
iter2.hasNext();)

{

FlexClient sharedClient = (FlexClient)iter2.next();

if (sharedClient.isValid() &&
!sharedClient.equals(thisFlexClient))

{

List sharedClientFlexSessions =
sharedClient.getFlexSessions();

for (Iterator iter3 = sharedClientFlexSessions.iterator() ;
iter3.hasNext();)

{

FlexSession sharedClientFlexSession =
(FlexSession)iter3.next();

if (sharedClientFlexSession.isValid())

{

sharedClientFlexSession.invalidate();

}

}

}

}

}

}



I will turn on that LCDS logging and will post the results
soon. Thanks. By the way, where did you get that very descriptive
message for the "<timeout-minutes>" node? The
"services-config.xml" file that comes with LCDS 2.5.1 does not even
contain a "<flex-client>" node..



Also, offtopic: how to properly insert a code snippet on this
forum? I noticed the above sample code got stripped from all its
left white spaces, the formatting is now just ugly.

[Robert_Csiki]

Here,s the log:



[Flex] 10:39:47.328 [DEBUG] [Endpoint.FlexSession]
FlexSession created with id '0DB83653B7561285669BB5DC0ABF18E7' for
an Http-based client connection.

[Flex] 10:40:03.484 [DEBUG] [Endpoint.FlexSession]
FlexSession created with id '759CCC2F-DC0D-C199-21BD-7871C6175538'
for a direct RTMP client connection.

[Flex] 10:40:43.687 [DEBUG] [Endpoint.FlexSession]
FlexSession with id '0DB83653B7561285669BB5DC0ABF18E7' for an
Http-based client connection has been invalidated.

[Flex] 10:40:43.687 [DEBUG] [Endpoint.FlexSession]
FlexSession created with id 'C94FDAD845F6F89808AF7691C4E2F5BE' for
an Http-based client connection.

[Flex] 10:40:43.703 [DEBUG] [Endpoint.FlexSession]
FlexSession created with id '759E4BBE-C70D-996F-A8A4-D96DCBD1799E'
for a direct RTMP client connection.

[Flex] 10:40:43.703 [DEBUG] [Endpoint.FlexSession]
FlexSession with id '759CCC2F-DC0D-C199-21BD-7871C6175538' for a
direct RTMP client connection has been invalidated.



The test case steps:



- login (HTTP session was created, RTMP session was created)

- logout -> (both sessions are invalidated, a new HTTP
one is created) the login page is now shown in browser

- login again - here I got the error trying to work with the
FlexClient object in a RTMP request. There is a new RTMP session
created, but it has no FlexClient associated.
FlexContext.getFlexClient() returns the old, invalidated Flexclient
object, whicxh has 0 (zero) Flex sessions associated.



Cheers,

Robert

[aBill]

Hi Robert,



Can you do a quick test for me? Can you also try disconnect
rtmp channel after logout? I think it may help



Thanks!



William Chan

[Robert_Csiki]

William,



I tried this early in the morning (disconnecting the
DataService from the Flex client, using the disconnect()
ActionScript call), and it worked, as you predicted. Thanks for the
tip. Still I don't know what the client-side implications are with
the managed data, should I also do something specific with the
ArrayCollection objects this DataService used to manage, or nothing
needs to be done on this matter?

Should we consider what I described in previous posts on this
topic a bug?



Cheers

Robert

[aBill · Accepted solution]

Not sure this is a bug or not. I'll discuss it with dev, but
I agree with you invalidate the flexclient should also destroy it.



William Chan

[aBill]

"should I also do something specific with the ArrayCollection
objects this DataService used to manage, or nothing needs to be
done on this matter?"



I am not quite sure what the situation is. When user logs
out, should the application close all services and release all the
collections?



William Chan

[Robert_Csiki]

Yes, on Logout all the server resources (including the
managed data) need to be released/cleared. So for instance, the
ArrayCollection object used to be filled with managed data needs to
be emptied. I noticed explicitly calling removeAll() for this
collection after disconnecting the data service won't work, an
error is being thrown.



Thanks,

Robert

[aBill]

I think you should use the dataservice.release() or
dataservice.releaseCollection(collection, true) before ds.logout



William Chan

[Robert_Csiki]

Thanks, so as a recap, the following calls need to be done in
this case, in this order:



ds.release(); // to release everything that's managed by this
service

ds.disconnect(); // to disconnect the RTMP link to the server

ds.logout(); // to logout the destination for all the ds
instances used by this client



Correct? Thank you..

[aBill]

I think the logout should go before rtmp disconnect.



William