Getting the _session_id from SWFUpload (Flash 8 multiple file uploader) (See related posts)

It appears that Ruby's CGI::Session class will not use the _session_id in the query string when the Request is a POST.

Normally, a POST-type request occurs when a form is submitted to the server (e.g. a Rails application). In this scenario, there is an easy workaround since we can send the _session_id as a hidden field.

With Flash 8, however, there is no way to add a 'hidden field' to the multi-part form data, thus Rails will fail to recognize the _session_id in the query string portion of our request.

Here is a hackish work-around:

   1  
   2  # The following code is a work-around for the
   3  # Flash 8 bug that prevents our multiple file uploader
   4  # from sending the _session_id.  Here, we hack the
   5  # Session#initialize method and force the session_id
   6  # to load from the query string via the request uri. 
   7  # (Tested on Lighttpd)
   8  
   9  class CGI::Session
  10    alias original_initialize initialize
  11    def initialize(request, option = {})
  12      session_key = option['session_key'] || '_session_id'
  13      option['session_id'] =
  14        request.env_table["REQUEST_URI"][0..-1].
  15        scan(/#{session_key}=(.*?)(&.*?)*$/).
  16        flatten.first
  17      original_initialize(request, option)
  18    end
  19  end