Purpose of ping_session.jsp ?

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

I noticed that ping_session.jsp is called in template...and when I looked into the code, I found it only says "pong" in this file...

What is the purpose of this file? Any harm if I remove this iframe in template? or is this a place holder for something in the future?

I appreciate any pointer on this!
[originally posted on jforum.net by beautifulegg]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

A quick guess is that this may be part of some code that is designed to keep the user's webapp session alive. I.e., most web app servers have a session timeout that will close out inactive sessions.

However, a user may take a long time writing a reply (or get a phone call, etc). In order to make sure the user does not loose work, there is sometimes a little background javascript application that "pings" the application server as long as the browser open to one of the application's pages. This keeps the session alive even if the user if away but lets the session be cleaned up if the user closes the browser, goes to a different site, and the like.
[originally posted on jforum.net by monroe]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

That make sense! Thank you.

So..although there is only "pong" in there...it is doing the job (which the mechanism beyond my knowledge)

I appreciate your super quick reply on this!
[originally posted on jforum.net by beautifulegg]