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Sessions in CactuShop
Question
What happens with idle sessions and how can they be killed?
Answer
CactuShop does not use session variables. All logins, basket info and other temporary data are stored on cookies on the visitor's machine.
IIS as default times out sessions after 20 minutes. This value can be changed but upping it to keep sessions longer obviously uses more server memory and degrades performance. With CactuShop, you can reduce this timeout value as sessions are not used at all.
The big advantage of not using sessions is that it achieves something that is impossible with sessions - logins and basket contents that never time out as long as the browser stays open, and much reduced server memory usage.
Users with items in their basket who do remain idle are not a problem - they are not using any server resources. Their session ends when they close the browser.