protected function getSessionSavePath($toAppend = null)
    {
        // load the default path
        $sessionSavePath = $this->getSessionSettings()->getSessionSavePath();

        // check if we've something to append
        if ($toAppend != null) {
            $sessionSavePath = $sessionSavePath . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $toAppend;
        }

        // return the session save path
        return $sessionSavePath;
    }