What's the preferred way to wrap session state in ASP.Net?

Question

I've got an ASP.Net project that uses session state, I'd like to be a little more strict about how we access session state, I'm not happy about all the strings floating around the code. I also need to know when a particular value is stored/updated in session state for tracking that object's latest value.

The string issue is easy to solve using constants, but it doesn't help with the tracking. Encapsulating them all in a single class is appealing, but then I have to pass the session object to that class, and that seems a little messy

I'm thinking of using one of two options:

1. Extension getters and setters on the session object
2. An extension method on the session object to return a class with the getters and setters

The first gives me the syntax:

var thing = Session.GetThing();
Session.SetThing(thing);

The second gives:

var thing = Session.Wrapper().Thing;
Session.Wrapper().Thing = thing;

Both have their appeal, though I'm leaning towards the second. In an ideal world I'd like to be able to do this:

var thing = Session.Thing(); // easy to do
Session.Thing() = thing; // don't think it's possible

What's the preferred way of handling this? Any of these, another way, or am I just doing it wrong?

Answer 1

You don't have to pass the Session to each class, you can have:

public class State
{
    public string Something
    {
        get { return HttpContext.Current.Session["Something"] as string; }
        set { HttpContext.Current.Session["Something"] = value; }
    }
}

This, I believe, is the typical approach. HttpContext has the Current property which is statically available.

Answer 2

My preferred method is to put all of the variables that need access into an object. Then I put a variable in our page's base class that provides the appropriate access to the object in the session. The only manner of true enforcement of this is to provide a standard that requires usage of this object and then code/peer review to ensure that miscellaneous strings/variables don't end up clogging the session up.