Timeout Configuration

In Natural for Ajax applications, timeouts between the browser and the web application as well as timeouts between the web application and the Natural server can be configured.

This document covers the following topics:

Timeout Between the Browser and the Web Application

Most users keep their browser open with several applications running in multiple browser tabs for many hours or even days. More often than not, they do not remember which of the applications are still running in one of the browser tabs. For security reasons and to avoid resource bottlenecks, web applications should therefore timeout after a certain period of inactivity of the user.

By setting sessiontimeout in the Ajax Configuration which is included in the Natural for Ajax documentation for the standalone version of this product you can configure such a timeout.

Timeout Between the Web Application and the Natural Server

Between the web application and the Natural server each user of your application usually has one or several Natural connections active. There are two situations in which you would like to close these connections automatically:

Situation A

When the web application does not receive an appropriate answer for a request from the Natural server in a defined time, thereby indicating that something could be wrong with

  • either the server side execution,

  • the Natural server or

  • the connection to the Natural server.

Using the parameter Timeout (in Seconds) the timeout for this situation can be configured for each session individually. For details, refer to the description of this parameter in the table under Overview of Session Options in section Session Configuration which is included in the Natural for Ajax documentation for the standalone version of this product.

Situation B

When the Natural server does not receive any more requests from the web application for a defined time, thereby indicating that something could be wrong with

  • either the web application or

  • with the connection from the web application to the Natural server

  • or the user unintendedly did not close/end the application.

Using the global setting Last activity timeout (in seconds) the timeout for this situation can be configured for all sessions globally. For details, refer to the description of this setting in Global Settings under Session Configuration which is included in the Natural for Ajax documentation for the standalone version of this product.

Dependencies Between Timeouts

We recommend, that you use the same value for the Last activity timeout (as in Situation B) and the sessiontimeout in the Ajax configuration.

The Last activity timeout covers a subset of situations to which the sessiontimeout applies. The sessiontimeout also applies to "non-Natural" Ajax pages such as workplace applications.