ASP.NET MVC Store TempData in Cookie - asp.net-mvc

Question

Is there a way to let TempData store in a browser's cookie instead of Session State. I have Session State disabled on my site.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use brock Allen's Cookie TempData provider. Is fully documented here and it's also available as a NuGet package.
It takes into account, between other things, an important concern: security.
It's really easy to make MVC TempData use this package.

Answer 2

You can specify your own custom TempDataProvider and write it so that it stores in temp data.
Take a look at this blog post for an example where someone uses a custom tempdata provider

Answer 3

I use the following little class file:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
/* 16-09-2010
* pulled from Microsoft.Web.Mvc Futures
* be careful in case future versions of the mvc dll incorporate this
*
*/
namespace yournamespace
{
public class CookieTempDataProvider : ITempDataProvider
{
internal const string TempDataCookieKey = "__ControllerTempData";
readonly HttpContextBase _httpContext;
public CookieTempDataProvider(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
if (httpContext == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("httpContext");
}
_httpContext = httpContext;
}
public HttpContextBase HttpContext
{
get
{
return _httpContext;
}
}
protected virtual IDictionary<string, object> LoadTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext)
{
HttpCookie cookie = _httpContext.Request.Cookies[TempDataCookieKey];
if (cookie != null && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(cookie.Value))
{
IDictionary<string, object> deserializedTempData = DeserializeTempData(cookie.Value);
cookie.Expires = DateTime.MinValue;
cookie.Value = string.Empty;
if (_httpContext.Response != null && _httpContext.Response.Cookies != null)
{
HttpCookie responseCookie = _httpContext.Response.Cookies[TempDataCookieKey];
if (responseCookie != null)
{
cookie.Expires = DateTime.MinValue;
cookie.Value = string.Empty;
}
}
return deserializedTempData;
}
return new Dictionary<string, object>();
}
protected virtual void SaveTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary<string, object> values)
{
var cookieValue = SerializeToBase64EncodedString(values);
var cookie = new HttpCookie(TempDataCookieKey)
{
HttpOnly = true, Value = cookieValue
};
_httpContext.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
}
public static IDictionary<string, object> DeserializeTempData(string base64EncodedSerializedTempData)
{
var bytes = Convert.FromBase64String(base64EncodedSerializedTempData);
var memStream = new MemoryStream(bytes);
var binFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
return binFormatter.Deserialize(memStream, null) as IDictionary<string, object>;
}
public static string SerializeToBase64EncodedString(IDictionary<string, object> values)
{
var memStream = new MemoryStream();
memStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
var binFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
binFormatter.Serialize(memStream, values);
memStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
var bytes = memStream.ToArray();
return Convert.ToBase64String(bytes);
}
IDictionary<string, object> ITempDataProvider.LoadTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext)
{
return LoadTempData(controllerContext);
}
void ITempDataProvider.SaveTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary<string, object> values)
{
SaveTempData(controllerContext, values);
}
}
}
and then add it to my contoller as such:
protected override void Initialize(System.Web.Routing.RequestContext requestContext)
{
base.Initialize(requestContext);
TempDataProvider = new CookieTempDataProvider(requestContext.HttpContext);
}
seems to work fine...

Answer 4

Nazaf,
try this for removing your cookies:
public void DeleteCookie(string name)
{
DateTime now = DateTime.UtcNow;
string cookieKey = name;
var cookie = new HttpCookie(cookieKey, null)
{
Expires = now.AddDays(-1)
};
HttpContext.Response.Cookies.Set(cookie);
}
usage:
DeleteCookie("__ControllerTempData");