Question

I have a situation where I need to retrieve data from a query which executes for almost half a minute and bring it to a web page. (There is no way to reduce this time because the maximum amount of optimization has been performed on it)
I use a four layer architecture along with Entity Framework ( EF, Data Access Layer, Biz Logic Layer, UI) for my application.
I’m trying to use the singleton method when an instance to the DAL is created (The DAL in turn retrieves data from the database) so that I will be able to re-use this instance and hence additional instances wont be created within the same session.
How do I go about setting the session state and checking the availability of the instance in the State Server?

public static Singleton getInstance() {
     if (**instance == null**)
       instance = new Singleton();
     return instance;
   }

What should reside within the if block? What condition should I check for in the if block? I’m really unsure as to what I must do.

PS: This session must have a timeout of 5 mins. I hear this can be specified in the Web.config file. is it true?

Answer 1

To be honest you should rather use Entity Framework context and create it every time you need access to database, i.e. in each method. It is optimized to be used that way. Connection pooling will make sure there is not penalty in recreating EF context each time. This is the best practice.

But your DAL might be more than just simple DB access. If you want to have it as a singleton separate for each session you must create the instance on the first request, store it into the Session and check if it’s there before using. With thread safety the code could look like that:

class DALClass
{
    private static object instanceLock = new object();

    public static DALClass Instance
    {
        get
        {
            if (Session["DALInstance"] == null)
            {
                lock (instanceLock)
                {
                    if (Session["DALInstance"] == null)
                    {
                        Session["DALInstance"] = new DALClass();
                    }
                }
            }

            return (DALClass)Session["DALInstance"];
        }
    }
}