Get/Set HttpContext Session Methods in BaseController vs Mocking HttpContextBase to create Get/Set methods

Question

I created Get/Set HttpContext Session Methods in BaseController class and also Mocked HttpContextBase and created Get/Set methods.

Which is the best way to use it.

Answer 1

The second one seems the best. Although I would probably write those two as extension methods to the HttpSessionStateBase instead of putting them into a base controller. Like this:

public static class SessionExtensions
{
    public static T GetDataFromSession(this HttpSessionStateBase session, string key)
    {
         return (T)session[key];
    }

    public static void SetDataInSession(this HttpSessionStateBase session, string key, object value)
    {
         session[key] = value;
    }
}

and then inside the controllers, or helpers, or something that has an instance of HttpSessionStateBase use it:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    Session.SetDataInSession("key1", "value1");
    string value = Session.GetDataFromSession("key1");
    ...
}

Writing session wrappers is useless in ASP.NET MVC as the HttpSessionStateBase provided by the framework is already an abstract class which could be easily mocked in unit tests.