Question

I want to hold information about a users preferences in a session variable. If the user chooses a preference while logged out and then later logs in, I want the preference to be maintained without needing to reselect it.

Django sessions maintain a session key in a cookie to track a users session. The way I understand it, this key is changed when a user logs in.

a) Does this mean all session variables are deleted on login or is there any sort of passover

b) In the case of not being able to save preferences across a login, is manually setting cookies the best way to proceed? I imagine a scenario like:

• while logged out, maintain preferences in cookie
• on login, copy preferences to session variable and write to db (via signal?)
• on logout, update cookies with preferences (via signal?)

Update

I managed to get this functionality by saving preferences in the User’s profile object, as well as in a cookie (these preferences are not sensitive in any way). When the user is logged in, their profile setting takes preference. When not logged in, the cookie preference is chosen

Answer 1

When you login/logout Django will flush all sessions if another user logs in (request.session.flush() in auth/init.py).

You’re better of storing user settings in the database and add some middleware to get that data and store it in your request.