CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jsexpresssession-variablesexpress-session
Juicy
Juicy

Reputation: 12530

Express session variables don't persist across requests

I'm trying to get sessions variables working in my Express Node.js project, using the express-session module. I'm not getting any errors, and setting session variables seems to work, however they don't persist across requests. Here's a simplified bit of my code:

server.js

var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var session = require('express-session');

var app = express();

app.use(bodyParser.json());
// Sessions
app.use(session({
    secret: config.secret
}));

app.use('/api/projects', require('./controllers/api/projects'));

var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
    console.log('Server listening on', 3000)
});

api/projects.js router

var router = require('express').Router()

router.get('/set', function(req, res, next) {
    req.session.test = "test";
    res.status(200).json({"test":req.session.test});
});

router.get('/current', function(req, res, next) {
    res.status(200).json({"test":req.session.test});
})

Setting the variable seems to works...

The /set API call should set a session variable called test. This API call appears to work when I try it with curl:

curl -X GET localhost:3000/api/projects/set --cookie "connect.sid=s%3AyP3a8siRuA-5jDxWH4T03UxNpFd6lfBq.Ha8b8eJxbtW8fAJlbgR9jumfmBpJIXNE6444fOb2Jro"
{"test":"test"}

This is also confirmed in the console log:

Session {
  cookie: 
   { path: '/',
     _expires: null,
     originalMaxAge: null,
     httpOnly: true },
  test: 'test' }

...however next time I check it it's not set

When I try to check the variable with my second API call, it appears to be undeclared:

curl -X GET localhost:3000/api/projects/current --cookie "connect.sid=s%3AyP3a8siRuA-5jDxWH4T03UxNpFd6lfBq.Ha8b8eJxbtW8fAJlbgR9jumfmBpJIXNE6444fOb2Jro"
{}

This is confirmed in the console log, the test variable is no longer set:

Session {
  cookie: 
   { path: '/',
     _expires: null,
     originalMaxAge: null,
     httpOnly: true } }

How can I ensure my sessions variables persist across requests?

(PS: I've been stuck on this for a while and any small comment on hints or resolution is very welcome, even if you're not sure you've got the answer)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1885

Answers (1)

Leonid Beschastny
Leonid Beschastny

Reputation: 51490

I can see two possible reasons for this.

First, you could've messed up with cookies in curl.

You could ensure that you've set your cookies correctly by checking http response. If it contains Set-Cookie header with a new connect.sid then you did something wrong.

Alternatively, you could use a web browser with native cookies support to guard yourself against such mistakes.

Second, you may've restarted your sever between two requests.

Since you didn't specify any persistent store for your sessions, no data will persist between node.js server restarts.

If you want session data to persist after node.js server stops or restarts, you should consider using some persistent session store (i.e. redis-store).

Upvotes: 2

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