How to best handle user state when multiple browser windows share same session?

Question

I have a web application (Java, Websphere, JSP) which allows co-workers to register visitors to various company exhibitions. A user object is stored in the session which records the currently selected exhibition and this is used when entering the details of new visitors.

One user has decided to open a second browser window which seems to share the same session. The user browses to an other exhibition in the second window. This changes the state of the currently selected exhibition. Back in the first window a menu item is clicked: 'List visitors'. The resulting list is a list of visitors to the exhibition selected in the second window.

I know that I could add the exhibition id to every form on every page but my actual scenario is more complicated that the one I have described.

What is your stategy for dealing with this kind of problem?

Answer 1

My first guess would be you can avoid the problem by keeping (or perhaps only identifying) view state in the URL and not the session.