difference between session and cookie?

If we're talking web application context:

Each web browser transaction is a separate connection, so the web server often needs to be able to keep track of which comes from which browser, to tie the individual transactions into a conversation. The most popular underlying mechanism is cookies. The server sends the browser a cookie as part of the first transaction response and, thereafter, every time the browser sends a transaction it includes the cookie. Cookies typically contain random strings of characters which uniquely label the browser.

A Session object is used in Serlvets and JSPs as a higher level abstraction of the same thing. The session object retains data about the conversation between transactions. The web server normally implements this by automatically creating a random cookie associated with the Session object and, whenever a transaction is received, it looks for the cookie and finds the relavant session object.

malcolmmca at 2007-7-15 5:54:04 >