Contents collection contains objects and values set by the ASP-like or ScriptGen raw scripts belonging to a particular ALP application. ASP-like scripts share the same Session object with the raw scripts.

Syntax:

1. Session.Contents(key_name) = variable
   variable = Session.Contents(key_name)

2. Session(key_name) = variable
   variable = Session(key_name)

Second syntax is recommended (see remarks below).

Parameters:

key_name - string that is used as label for the value/object being set/retrieved to/from the collection.

variable - any variable that can be converted to a value such as number and string or object. Object being set can not be an internal scripting object! Note (most important for the JScript programmers): If you want to save array in the collection use safearray (often called VBArray). See remarks section for more details.

If key_name does not exist in the collection VT_NULL is returned. Most script languages support the null values: in JScript it is the keyword null in VBScript IsNull function can be used.

Second syntax depends on the Value indexed property of the Session object and automatically adds new key when assigning a value to non-existing key_name. The first syntax does not allow assignment to a non-existing key_name and this will cause an error.

Samples:

<% Session("UserName") = strUser %>

<%
    Dim obj
    Set obj = Server.CreateObject("Company.SomeObject")
    Session("TheObject") = obj
%>

Remarks:

Contents collection is implemented using the VarDisctionary collection object form the newObjects collections. Thus it supports all the methods and properties of the VarDictionary. Using these methods and properties on the Contents collection gives extended features but makes the script incompatible with the IIS ASP - it is recommended developers targeting compatibility with ASP to limit their usage of the Session.Contents to the features available on the both platforms.

Important for the values and objects added to the Contents collection is their life scope. All the objects must be page script independent. The page script is unloaded with after completing the request and in that case all objects defined internally in the script will be no longer available. You may add to the Contents collection primitive types as string and numeric types and objects created using Server.CreateObject method.

The Contents collection is implemented using the VarDictionary object and you can use its methods to perform extended operations such as Remove element, Clear all the elements, Clone the collection and save it in a new variable and so on.

Applies to: Session object