HTTP_Session2 0.6.0

This morning I rolled another release of HTTP_Session2 and uploaded it to PEAR. So what can you use HTTP_Session2 for and what's new in this release?

The usage question was pretty simple for me, at my current one and only gig we run four web servers behind a loadbalancer and since I'm not a fan of NFS shared storage and writing to it I decided that we could utilize our database powerhouses to store our session data. The other option is what commonly in the cluster-loadbalancing-context is referred to as stickyness, which means that a user is kept on one server during the session, but this adds more load on the loadbalancer itself and it defeats the scalability and hot-failover thing for me.

So this is where HTTP_Session2 comes in and saves the day - I must add, that it's a pretty easy drop-in replacement for regular session calls and works like a charm.

HTTP_Session2 currently supports PostgreSQL and MySQL(i). Except for the garbage collection, which is (oddly) very database specific, others backends should work as well, but we had no time to test that yet.

What's new in 0.6.0?

• We decided to remove the MDB and Creole containers
  We felt no one was using either one since MDB is very old and almost everyone is using either DB or its successor MDB2. And for Creole - no idea. I toyed with it briefly at my last job but didn't really fall i love with it. So if you are a Creole user and happen to be using HTTP_Session2, I'll revert and you can maintain it. ;-)
  
• Added the new MDB2 container
• Fixed smaller bugs and lots of CS
• Change stability to beta.
  

 Future development

• Develop a PDO or Doctrine container to move to PHP5 completely.
• A File container/driver to for example store sessions on NFS without getting rid of HTTP_Session2 calls. ;-)

If you deployed HTTP_Session2 as well, I'd like to hear from you. Contact me at till-at-php-dot-net, or comment. I am pretty sure that in terms of stability it's more than beta code since I use it myself and we sometimes push 4+ mbit of traffic on the site, but all feedback is welcome.