Seam Conversation / Session question

[mmarcom]

hi all,
i m writing a small app based on Seam.
my app simulates a shopping cart (like dvd example), only difference being the fact that user does not start from a predefined catalog but he will enter products 'on the fly' (meaning, there will be no catalog from which to choose)
i initially decided to write a Stateful session bean (ShoppingExpense) which has a Session scope, and i was able to add all items, get the total and finihs my expense.

I decided then to switch to conversation instead of having the ShoppingExpense bean in session scope.

I m having problems in the sense that, although in conversation, the inputs entered are not stored anywhere, and thus they won't survive the pageflow.
do i need any annotations for specifying which values has to be kept int he conversation?
does it make sense to have a Session bean ina conversation but in NO session scope?

thanks and regards
marco

[iradix]

That would totally depend on your application. Having a conversation scope available doesn't mean you should never use the session, it just gives you another choice for storing data that should outlive the page which creates it but which isn't necessary for the duration of the user's interaction with the app. If you have data that needs to be available thoughout the user's entire interaction, store it in the session and if it only needs to be kept around to complete some logical portion of the app store it in a conversation.