CGI gbrowse_img does not create sessionIds

[OliPelz]

I have problems with "gbrowse_img" URLs under my local installation using

• centos 6.5
• building perl v.5.18.1
• installed latest cpan, bioperl and gbrowse using cpan:
• as of 14/10/14: CPAN 2.05, BioPerl-1.6.923., GBrowse-2.55

If I clear the browsers cache (and apparently the gbrowse cookie which stores the session id called "gbrowse_sess") and directly go to a ../gbrowse_img/.. "add" URL (e.g.:

/gb2/gbrowse_img/yeast/?name=chrI%3A80%2C000..120%2C000;add=chrI+oli+pelz+100100..100200

) I get a sessionid error message:

[Fri Oct 17 10:05:54 2014] [error] [client 192.108.26.43] Sessionid unavailable at /usr/local/lib64/perl5/Bio/Graphics/Browser2/UserDB.pm line 502.

If I clear the browse cache, then go to a ../gbrowse/.. URL WITHOUT THE ADD URL (e.g. with firebug cookie inspector open: (e.g.:

/gb2/gbrowse_img/yeast/?name=chrI%3A80%2C000..120%2C000

) I see that there it creates the missing "gbrowse_sess" cookie. If I than go to a ../gbrowse_img/.. URL with ADD parameter it works because the cookie has been set before. So the problem is that there is code in the gbrowse which creates a session id cookie only when browsing to the standard gbrowse pages and not in gbrowse_img with "add" parameter.

Since our website makes requests to our gbrowse server through ../gbrowse_img/.. URLS only using the ADD parameter my suggested solution would be to create the missing session id and cookie on the ../gbrowse_img/.. requests if it is not available (e.g. from clearing browser), etc.

Try on your own (tested in Firefox 33): clear browser cache OR "gbrowse_sess" cookie, than:

http://hostname/gb2/gbrowse_img/yeast/?name=chrI%3A80%2C000..120%2C000;add=chrI+oli+pelz+100100..100200

not working! than:

http://hostname/gb2/gbrowse/yeast/ (works!)

than again url from point one:

http://hostname/gb2/gbrowse_img/yeast/?name=chrI%3A80%2C000..120%2C000;add=chrI+oli+pelz+100100..100200

now it works!

Can someone confirm this is a bug or fix this?

I tried calling

gbrowse_new_sessionid.pl 

before calling UserDB than I get

[..]
[Fri Oct 24 11:19:08 2014] [error] [client 192.108.26.43] Couldn't make /opt/gbrowse2/lib/userdata/yeast/a2eeb61970fea9b177e3fb7ef98501e0/My_Track/SOURCES directory: No such file or directory at /usr/local/lib64/perl5/Bio/Graphics/Browser2/DataLoader.pm line 270.

So I need to create the whole bunch of session initalization such as creating a session directory.

Best, Oliver