What is the difference between a Session and a Cookie?
Cookie is a client side storage of your variables. It stored on client machine by browser physically. It's scope is machine wide. Different users at same machine can read same cookie.
Because of this :
- You should not store sensitive data on cookie.
- You should not store data that belongs to one user account.
- Cookie has no effect on server resources.
- Cookie expires at specified date by you.
Session is a server side storage of your variables. Default, it stored on server's memory. But you can configure it to store at SqlServer. It's scope is browser wide. Same user can run two or more browsers and each browser has it's own session.
Because of this :
- You can save sensitive data in session.
- You should not save everything in session. it's waste of server resources.
- After user closes browser, session timeout clears all information. (default is 20 minutes)
Sessionis used to store per-user information for the current Web session on the server. It supports using a database server as the back-end store.Cookieshould be used to store per-user information for the current Web session or persistent information on the client, therefore client has control over the contents of a cookie.Cacheobject is shared between users in a single application. Its primary purpose is to cache data from a data store and should not be used as a primary storage. It supports automatic invalidation features.Applicationobject is shared between users to store application-wide state and should be used accordingly.
The basic task of both cookies and sessions is to store visitor data so that it can be accessed by every page on a website. This data is usually provided by the visitor and used to customize the experience, including their visit statistics, identity, setting and/or preferences, etc.
Cookies are small files that are stored in the visitor's browser. Cookies can have a long lifespan, lasting months or even years. Cookies are limited in size depending on each browser's default settings. Cookies can be disabled if the visitor's browser does not allow them (uncommon). Cookies can be edited by the visitor. (Do not use cookies to store sensitive data.) Sessions are small files that are stored on the website's server. Sessions have a limited lifespan; they expire when the browser is closed. Sessions are only limited in size if you limit their size on the server. Sessions cannot be disabled by the visitor because they are not stored in the browser. Sessions cannot be edited by the visitor.
