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:

# The following code is a work-around for the
# Flash 8 bug that prevents our multiple file uploader
# from sending the _session_id.  Here, we hack the
# Session#initialize method and force the session_id
# to load from the query string via the request uri. 
# (Tested on Lighttpd)

class CGI::Session
  alias original_initialize initialize
  def initialize(request, option = {})
    session_key = option['session_key'] || '_session_id'
    option['session_id'] =
      request.env_table["REQUEST_URI"][0..-1].
      scan(/#{session_key}=(.*?)(&.*?)*$/).
      flatten.first
    original_initialize(request, option)
  end
end