Why is HttpContext.Current set to null?

Question

we are trying to access the user profile properties via SOM. Code is taken from reference as mentioned below.

My question is: Why is HttpContext.Current set to null?. Code works even if we comment out this line. What is the purpose?

There is an article about why it is set to null here.

Code:

string accountName = SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.LoginName;
Logger.info("ProfileUserControl:btnSave_Click() Saving user profile properties.");
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
    SPSite sc = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.ID);
    SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(sc);
    //ServerContext context = ServerContext.GetContext(sc);
    HttpContext currentContext = HttpContext.Current;
    HttpContext.Current = null;
    UserProfileManager profileManager = new UserProfileManager(context);
    UserProfile userProfile = profileManager.GetUserProfile(accountName);    
    userProfile[PropertyConstants.WorkPhone].Value = txtWorkPhone.Text.Trim();
    userProfile[PropertyConstants.CellPhone].Value = txtMobilePhone.Text.Trim();
    userProfile[PropertyConstants.HomePhone].Value = txtHomePhone.Text.Trim();
    userProfile[PropertyConstants.School].Value = txtSchool.Text.Trim();
    userProfile[PropertyConstants.Skills].Value = txtSkills.Text.Trim();
    userProfile.Commit();
    HttpContext.Current = currentContext;
    //UserProfile userProfile = SPSparshService.GetUserProfile("");
});

Reference: http://www.fewlines4biju.com/2011/01/how-to-save-user-profile-properties.html

Answer 1

From the link you supplied:

In case your business needs require users apart from Administrators for User Profile Service Application to be able to create organization profiles (not sure why you’d want that though), the workaround is to set HttpContext.Current to null like code below.

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate() {
    HttpContext httpCtx = HttpContext.Current;
    HttpContext.Current = null;

    using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://yourserver/"))
    {
        // code omitted here
    } // end of using
    HttpContext.Current = httpCtx; }); 

The workaround makes the service account of User Profile Service Application to execute the code. The service account should be in Administrators for User Profile Service Application with Full Control permission.

So, setting the HttpContext to null should only be done when you have to let users not having "Manage Profiles" permissions on the UPS to do changes to UPS.

The fact that RunWithElevatedPrivileges does not work is probably due to the UserProfileManager not being part on the Microsoft.SharePoint API, but rather the Microsoft.Office.Server API.