Express session not persisting

Question

I'm trying to set up a basic session system in node. Here's what I've got so far:

app.js:

app.use(express.cookieParser('stackoverflow'));
app.use(express.session());

I'm setting the session data in ajax.js:

addClassToCart: function(req, res) {
  req.session.cart = req.body.classId;
  console.log(req.session.cart);
}

This logs the correct information. However, when I try to retrieve that information elsewhere (same file, different function):

console.log(req.session.cart);

I get undefined. I feel like I'm missing something incredibly basic. Various tutorials for this are either awful or require me to add in even more packages (something I'm trying to avoid).

More data from my debugging:

This works with non-AJAX requests
The session is set before it's logged.

SomeKittens · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-17T19:47:25.173

7

As it turns out, the issue wasn't with Express' session (as the other answers seem to think). Rather, it was a misunderstanding on my part. I changed addClassToCart to the following:

addClassToCart: function(req, res) {
    req.session.cart = req.body.classId;
    console.log(req.session.cart);
    res.send('class added');
  }

Adding res.send() fixed the problem.

edited Nov 17 '12 at 19:47

answered Nov 17 '12 at 19:27

SomeKittens

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I'm having a similar problem. Did sending a response trigger persisting the session? Because that's exactly what I can't do :) – bitstream Mar 02 '16 at 12:37
Yes, sending a response triggered the session update. – SomeKittens Mar 03 '16 at 01:27
3

Hey! I fixed my problem by manually triggering an update by doing req.session.save(). You don't need to send a response. – bitstream Mar 03 '16 at 05:32

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

As noted in the answer to a related SO question, this can also occur if you're using fetch to get data from your server but you don't pass in the credentials option:

fetch('/addclasstocart', {
    method: 'POST',
    credentials: 'same-origin' // <- this is mandatory to deal with cookies
})

Cookies won't be passed to the server unless you include this option which means the request's session object will be reset with each new call.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 17 '12 at 02:03

-1

I don't know about basic session store, but redis only took me a few minutes to setup:

  app.use(express.session({
    store: new RedisStore({
      host: cfg.redis.host,
      db: cfg.redis.db
    }),
    secret: 'poopy pants'
  }));

On a mac:

brew install redis

answered Nov 17 '12 at 02:03

chovy

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1

> or require me to add in even more packages (something I'm trying to avoid). – SomeKittens Nov 17 '12 at 05:41

score -2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 17 '12 at 19:23

-2

app.use(express.session({
  secret: "my secret",
  store: new RedisStore,
    cookie: { secure: false, maxAge:86400000 }
}));

Not sure the problem is in session age, but it just to be safe, I'd suggest you to specify maxAge.

answered Nov 17 '12 at 19:23

f1nn

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This requires me to add `Redis`. I've explicitly said in the question that I don't want to install new packages. – SomeKittens Nov 17 '12 at 19:26

Express session not persisting

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