How to find out the request.session sessionid and use it as a variable in Django?

Question

I'm aware that you can get session variables using request.session['variable_name'], but there doesn't seem to be a way to grab the session id(key) as a variable in a similar way. Is this documented anywhere? I can't find it.

score 174 · Accepted Answer · edited May 20 '21 at 15:19

174

request.session.session_key

Note the key will only exist if there is a session, no key, no session. You can use this to test if a session exists. If you want to create a session, call create.

edited May 20 '21 at 15:19

dfrankow

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answered Feb 23 '09 at 16:47

dalore

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@aehike: `request.session._session_key` as per the answer from @Vinicius – hughes May 02 '13 at 20:18
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`request.session.session_key` works fine in Django 1.6. – ecstaticpeon Aug 04 '14 at 14:21
9

``request.session.session_key`` also works fine in Django 1.7. – Andrew E Dec 02 '14 at 08:10
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@p1l0t Umm.. You went too far ahead.. That's something to come in future. – Rohit Jain Jul 01 '15 at 12:38
Where is this documented? – ShreevatsaR Aug 20 '15 at 18:13
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Document here: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/sessions/#using-sessions-out-of-views – Rockallite Sep 14 '15 at 03:16
False. `request.session.session_key` resolves to `None` in Django 1.8. – Dan Loewenherz Sep 24 '15 at 13:32
@Dan Using it without problem in 1.8 `request.session.session_key`. – MiniGunnR Nov 09 '15 at 06:25
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I prefer using `request.session._get_or_create_session_key()` because, it can happen that there is just no ID yet. – patroqueeet Feb 06 '16 at 07:33
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Whether this works or not entirely depends on whether the session has been created. See my answer – Greg Sep 25 '16 at 22:44
Why is the session being accessed like an object when `request.session` is a dictionary-like object? – binny May 08 '21 at 03:25

che · Answer 2 · 2009-02-08T18:46:41.393

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Django sessions save their key in a cookie. At least its middleware extracts it like this:

from django.conf import settings
session_key = request.COOKIES[settings.SESSION_COOKIE_NAME]

edited Feb 08 '09 at 18:46

answered Feb 08 '09 at 18:41

che

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This doesn't help if the session key doesn't exist though. – Greg Sep 25 '16 at 22:43

score 19 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 02 '13 at 06:47

19

in Django >= 1.4 use:

request.session._session_key

answered Feb 02 '13 at 06:47

Vinicius

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Erm, the main intent of private variables (ones starting with an underscore) is that you should **not** use them. – Michał Górny Jul 31 '13 at 09:54
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@MichałGórny so what's the alternative? if there is none, I don't see how we have a choice... – Mark May 14 '14 at 09:19
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The alternative is to write proper code. If django doesn't provide a *public* API to obtain the session key, it simply means you aren't supposed to use that key. I can't tell you more without knowing what exactly you are trying to do but then it's probably a field for separate question. – Michał Górny May 14 '14 at 14:06

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 09 '13 at 02:55

This will either get you a session ID or create one for you. If you do dir(request.session), you will get many useful methods.

['TEST_COOKIE_NAME', 'TEST_COOKIE_VALUE', '__class__', '__contains__',
'__delattr__', '__delitem__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__format__',
'__getattribute__', '__getitem__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__',
'__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__',
'__setitem__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__', 
'_get_new_session_key', '_get_or_create_session_key', '_get_session',
'_get_session_key', '_hash', '_session', '_session_key', 'accessed',
'clear', 'create', 'cycle_key', 'decode', 'delete', 'delete_test_cookie',
'encode', 'exists', 'flush', 'get', 'get_expire_at_browser_close',
'get_expiry_age', 'get_expiry_date', 'has_key', 'items', 'iteritems',
'iterkeys', 'itervalues', 'keys', 'load', 'modified', 'pop', 'save',
'session_key', 'set_expiry', 'set_test_cookie', 'setdefault',
'test_cookie_worked', 'update', 'values']


session_id = request.session._get_or_create_session_key()

score 13 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 25 '16 at 22:42

To reliably get the session key, you need to make sure the session has been created first. The documentation mentions a .create() session method, which can be used to make sure there's a session key:

def my_view(request):
    if not request.session.session_key:
        request.session.create()

    print(request.session.session_key)

score 9 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 20 '14 at 13:45

9

Use:

request.COOKIES['sessionid']

edited Jan 20 '14 at 13:45

arulmr

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answered Feb 09 '09 at 04:36

Harold

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 17 '16 at 09:36

3

In Django 1.8:

request.session.session_key

and

request.session._session_key

Both work correctly.

answered Jun 17 '16 at 09:36

Sarthak Agrawal

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 03 '23 at 17:43

You can get the session key with session_key, _session_key and _get_session_key() in Django Views as shown below. *I use Django 4.2.1:

# "views.py"

from django.http import HttpResponse

def my_view(request):
    print(request.session.session_key) # w85oia6b5yqj5n2t6n7lpwuhw7lt7ti2
    print(request.session._session_key) # w85oia6b5yqj5n2t6n7lpwuhw7lt7ti2
    print(request.session._get_session_key()) # w85oia6b5yqj5n2t6n7lpwuhw7lt7ti2
    return HttpResponse("Test")

And, you can get the session key with request.session.session_keyin Django Templates as shown below:

{# "templates/index.html #}

{{ request.session.session_key }} {# w85oia6b5yqj5n2t6n7lpwuhw7lt7ti2 #}

score -1 · Answer 9 · edited Oct 26 '17 at 18:59

-1

You can check in your sessions too:

If "var" in request.session:
       Var = request.session['var']
        Return httpResponse("set")
Else:
       Return httpResponse("there isn't")

edited Oct 26 '17 at 18:59

manman

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answered Mar 11 '17 at 19:52

Omid Reza Heidari

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How to find out the request.session sessionid and use it as a variable in Django?

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