#399 gbrowse_img sessionId generation not working

[olip]

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

• 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?

Best,
Oliver