Express cookie-session does not persist in POST request

Question

I have an AngularJS client sending POST form data to an Express server using the $http() function. I want the server to set a cookie in the client holding the user's email address. This is all I'm storing, so I don't need the more powerful server-side sessions. I'm just using the cookie-session module.

Problem: The cookie is not persisting in the client. Subsequent requests from the same client show an empty session variable.

I've seen the example here and am using req.session.save() after setting the cookie, but it still doesn't work.

Server code:

// server.js

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
var cookieSession = require('cookie-session')
var methodOverride = require('method-override');

// Configuration
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({'extended':'true'}));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.json({ type: 'application/vnd.api+json' })); 
app.use(methodOverride('X-HTTP-Method-Override'));

var express = require('express');
var app = express();

// Cookies
app.use(cookieParser());

app.use(cookieSession({
    name: 'session', // what should this name match?
    resave: true,
    saveUninitialized: true,
    keys: ['key1', 'key2']  // what do these values need to match?
}));

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
    // Create a cookie.
    console.log("Session user [before set]: %j", req.session);
    req.session.mycookie = "sample data"; // simplified example for illustration
    console.log("Session user [after set]: %j", req.session);
    // Save session cookie
    req.session.save();
});

app.listen(3000);

Every request from the same client gives the output:

Session user [before set]: {}
Session user [after set]: {"mycookie":"sample data"}

Subsequent tests by the client show the cookie is not persisting. I even used the Firefox "View Cookies" plugin to check if any cookies are created, and non were.

1. Why is my cookie not persisting? I am new with Express, so I could be missing something obvious.

2. Am I using the correct parameters to create the cookieSession? I'm not sure what keys or name should be. The cookie-session documentation is vague about this, and I couldn't find better documentation elsewhere.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 27 '15 at 01:26

Turns out the solution was simple! I now realized I needed to include the port number in the browser's initial request to the server (I did include the port number in JavaScript code.)

Even without the port number, the browser could get the initial request, because another web server on the same machine (not my Express server) was servicing the request.

Simply adding the port number to the browser's address bar worked. Of course, then I needed to add another Express route on the server to handle the site's default page. After this, cookies worked as expected.

Hopefully this answer will help other Express newbies.

Express cookie-session does not persist in POST request

1 Answers1