Re: [http-state] Tab-level cookies for the browser

Bil Corry <bil@corry.biz> Wed, 29 July 2009 20:06 UTC

Return-Path: <bil@corry.biz>
X-Original-To: http-state@core3.amsl.com
Delivered-To: http-state@core3.amsl.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by core3.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32F3D3A6961 for <http-state@core3.amsl.com>; Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:06:02 -0700 (PDT)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at amsl.com
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -1.735
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.735 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[BAYES_00=-2.599, HELO_MISMATCH_COM=0.553, HOST_MISMATCH_NET=0.311]
Received: from mail.ietf.org ([64.170.98.32]) by localhost (core3.amsl.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id DGb04vJGvn1m for <http-state@core3.amsl.com>; Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:06:01 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from mail.mindio.com (app1.bc.anu.net [193.189.141.126]) by core3.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D14D3A690A for <http-state@ietf.org>; Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:06:00 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from [127.0.0.1] (unknown [98.212.72.151]) by mail.mindio.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D3D13FCEEB; Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:05:59 -0500 (CDT)
Message-ID: <4A70AB9D.2080009@corry.biz>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:05:49 -0500
From: Bil Corry <bil@corry.biz>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (Windows/20090605)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Discuss HTTP State Management Mechanism <http-state@ietf.org>
References: <9c4a5f1e0907281341h2edb469bgb1a40152fedd7486@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <9c4a5f1e0907281341h2edb469bgb1a40152fedd7486@mail.gmail.com>
X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: Ronald Ho <ronaldho@google.com>, "Chandra, Rishi" <rchandra@google.com>, Jonathan Sergent <sergent@google.com>
Subject: Re: [http-state] Tab-level cookies for the browser
X-BeenThere: http-state@ietf.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
List-Id: Discuss HTTP State Management Mechanism <http-state.ietf.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/http-state>, <mailto:http-state-request@ietf.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/http-state>
List-Post: <mailto:http-state@ietf.org>
List-Help: <mailto:http-state-request@ietf.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/http-state>, <mailto:http-state-request@ietf.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:06:02 -0000

Micah Lemonik wrote on 7/28/2009 3:41 PM: 
> We would like to propose the browser add tab-level cookies that will
> override the global process-level cookie in a given tab. That is if a tab
> override cookie is set on a particular tab, that cookie will be used in
> place of the global cookie. Tab level cookies would last the lifetime of a
> tab and would propagate to child tabs.
> The use case we're trying to accommodate is to be logged into different
> google accounts in different tabs. sessionStorage gets us part of the way
> there in terms of enabling a per-tab resource that propagates to child tabs,
> but sessionStorage doesn't automatically send data to the server on any
> request the way cookies do. Essentially we're looking for a solution that 1.
> works with cookies for compatibility with existing infrastructure and 2.
> isn't limited to XMLHttpRequest usage where we have the ability to set
> custom headers.

Note that there's been some discussion of this on the ietf-http-wg list[1], so you may wish to read through that thread for other responses.

I'm wondering if Yngve's Cache Context[2] draft could be adapted to meet your use case.  It provides "a mechanism that permits a webservice to group webpages by associating them in a named context, a 'Cache Context'".  It would require the UA send the context name back to the server, and if so, it could be used to distinguish one tab from another (if I understand the draft correctly).


- Bil

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/2009JulSep/0388.html
[2] http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-pettersen-cache-context-04