New session created for each instance in Perl web app using CGI::Application::Plugin::Session

Question

Caveat: similar to, but still different from this thread.

In a home-rolled ecomm app, a session with a param of order_id is created by a Perl module common to all instances when an item is added to the shopping cart:

    $self->session_config(
        DEFAULT_EXPIRY => '+4h',
        COOKIE_PARAMS  => {
            -name    => 'ECOMM_SESSID',
            -expires => '+4h',
            -path    => '/',
            -domain  => '.mydomain.com',
        },
        SEND_COOKIE => 1
    );

This instance is fired by cart.cgi which calls Cart.cgi.

When viewing the cart, a variable dump shows

• $self->session->param( 'order_id' ) = 4123`
• session id = 1111111*
• ECOMM_SESSID cookie in the header†

When other items are added to the cart, variable dumps continue to show the same values.

If one clicks "Checkout", shipping.cgi fires calling Shipping.pm. The existence of the order_id param is checked in the cgiapp_prerun part of the module. However, a data dump shows:

• $self->session->param( 'order_id' ) = null`
• session id = 2222222*
• ECOMM_SESSID cookie missing from the header†

A new session is being created, losing the order_id param.

Interestingly, if I go back to the cart, all the original values are there.

So, my question: how do I prevent a new session, thus preserving the old and the values needed to proceed in the checkout process?

*simplified †in browser Inspector

Answer 1

Solved my issue. PEBKAC error. The reason is was recreating two sessions with the same name but different ID's is that the shipping module was using a different domain name. So, the introduction of a new domain name was forcing a new session. Backstory: I had set this up as a staging site, but after pushing it live, forgot to adjust the link to shipping. Finally saw it in the URL. Insert head slap