How do I keep data without using sessions

Question

Is there a way to store data for separate users in Drupal without using sessions. I have previously used Drupal varibales. But it didin't work because the variable gets updated for every user (So whenever I access the variable it shows the last users details). I can't use sessions because I have a horizontally scaled server, so when the server is changed the sessions will be deleted.

Is there a way to do this exactly as the sessions but without sessions? I need to save users data in the browser temporarily.

Answer 1

If you don't need your data server side, you could use cookies, using user_cookie_save. Or store your variables in window.localStorage (it's HTML5, see here for browser support) in your own javascript code/behavior, like :

function storePersistentValue() {

  //Check whether local storage is available or not

  if (window.localStorage) {

    window.localStorage.MyKey = "HTML 5 features";

  }

}

function getPersistentValue() {

  //Check whether local storage is available or not

  if (window.localStorage) {

    var text = window.localStorage.MyKey;

  }

}

Answer 2

You can use the user.data service to store user-specific data, that should persist across servers. This data is stored in the {users_data} table of the DB.