A method for session-return to enable a stateful web application, comprising: receiving by a server from a portal used by a client a termination uniform resource locator relating to a terminated web application session, the termination URL including a given session ID that the client wants to use to refer to a session at start time and thereafter for termination and restart, the given session ID being an external session identifier (ESID) identifying the terminated web application session and representing a state of the terminated application, wherein the ESID includes an instance identifier and a page identifier of each page visited in a terminated web application session; wherein the ESID is generated by a session manager of the portal used by the client; sending the termination URL with the ESID to the server which then minimizes the state related to the terminated webapplication, the minimized state being a session-return state related to the terminated application which comprises the IDs of the objects being shown and/or edited; storing the ESID identifying the terminated web application; storing the minimized state under an ESID key;; receiving a request from the client for a new web application session; determining whether the request includes an identifier that corresponds to the ESID of the terminated web application session, wherein determining whether the request includes an identifier that corresponds to the ESID of the terminated web application session further includes mapping the identifier to one or more stored ESIDs; and if the identifier corresponds to the ESID of the terminated web application session, serving the new web application session according to the minimized state related to the terminated web application session, and if the identifier does not correspond to the ESID of the terminated web application session, serving the new web application session in a startup mode. receiving by a server from a portal used by a client a termination uniform resource locator relating to a terminated web application session, the termination URL including a given session ID that the client wants to use to refer to a session at start time and thereafter for termination and restart, the given session ID being an external session identifier (ESID) identifying the terminated web application session and representing a state of the terminated application, wherein the ESID includes an instance identifier and a page identifier of each page visited in a terminated web application session; wherein the ESID is generated by a session manager of the portal used by the client; sending the termination URL with the ESID to the server which then minimizes the state related to the terminated webapplication, the minimized state being a session-return state related to the terminated application which comprises the IDs of the objects being shown and/or edited; storing the ESID identifying the terminated web application; storing the minimized state under an ESID key;; receiving a request from the client for a new web application session; determining whether the request includes an identifier that corresponds to the ESID of the terminated web application session, wherein determining whether the request includes an identifier that corresponds to the ESID of the terminated web application session further includes mapping the identifier to one or more stored ESIDs; and if the identifier corresponds to the ESID of the terminated web application session, serving the new web application session according to the minimized state related to the terminated web application session, and if the identifier does not correspond to the ESID of the terminated web application session, serving the new web application session in a startup mode.