Why does Convio keep logging me out and what is a session?

Anonymous Blackbaud User

People who access Convio start what is called a "session". The session lives on the server. It is used to temporarily store information about the user. After 20 minutes of inactivity (for the server), the session is reclaimed (destroyed). Usually the only time it really matters is when a login is required to access some content. Site visitors only see this on surveys, action alert forms, TeamRaiser personal pages and email tools.

Can the session timeout be changed?

The short answer is "no".

The long answer is "no, and here's why:"

The reason the session timeouts are limited to 20 minutes is twofold:

A. Sessions require server memory to remain active. We try to keep a lid on the amount of memory sessions consume, for obvious reasons. Ideally, a spike in traffic (and sessions) should not cause the server to run out of memory suddenly, so we try to keep a fair amount ready - which means the average number of sessions needs to be managed closely.

B. Maintenance on the servers means that they'll have to be restarted or shutdown. Any active sessions at that time would be disrupted. To avoid that, we normally use a polite shoutdown policy, where the server no longer accepts new sessions and only serves old ones. At some point, they will all expire naturally, and site visitors notice nothing is wrong. This process requires a lot of time, as it is. Increasing the session time out may cause this to take days.