Session expiry behavior in Django - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Session Expiry Behavior in Django

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Django web application that requires users to log in. To improve security, you want to control how long a user's session lasts before they are automatically logged out.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to set up session expiry behavior in Django by configuring session timeout and applying it in your views.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Django view that sets a session variable

Configure a session expiry time in seconds

Implement logic to check session expiry

Ensure the session expires after the configured time

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web applications often need to manage user sessions securely to protect user data and control access.

💼 Career

Understanding session management is essential for backend developers working with Django or similar web frameworks.

1

Create a Django view that sets a session variable

Create a Django view function called set_session that takes request as a parameter and sets a session variable user_id with the value 42.

Django

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use request.session['user_id'] = 42 inside the view function.

2

Configure a session expiry time in seconds

Inside the set_session view, add a line to set the session expiry time to 300 seconds (5 minutes) using request.session.set_expiry(300).

Django

from django.http import HttpResponse

def set_session(request):
    request.session['user_id'] = 42
    # Set session expiry to 300 seconds
    # Your code here
    return HttpResponse('Session set')

Need a hint?

Use request.session.set_expiry(300) to set the session timeout.

3

Implement logic to check session expiry

Create a Django view function called check_session that takes request as a parameter. Inside it, check if 'user_id' exists in request.session. If it exists, return an HttpResponse with text 'Session active'. Otherwise, return 'Session expired'.

Django

from django.http import HttpResponse

def set_session(request):
    request.session['user_id'] = 42
    request.session.set_expiry(300)
    return HttpResponse('Session set')

# Create check_session view below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use if 'user_id' in request.session: to check session existence.

4

Complete the Django URL configuration

In your Django urls.py file, import the views set_session and check_session. Add two URL patterns: one for path 'set/' mapped to set_session, and one for path 'check/' mapped to check_session.

Django

from django.urls import path
from .views import set_session, check_session

urlpatterns = [
    # Add URL patterns here
    # Your code here
]

Need a hint?

Use path('set/', set_session) and path('check/', check_session) in urlpatterns.