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express-session

API

var express      = require('express')
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser')
var session      = require('express-session')

var app = express()

app.use(cookieParser()) // required before session.
app.use(session({ secret: 'keyboard cat', name: 'sid', cookie: { secure: true }}))

session(options)

Setup session store with the given options.

Session data is not saved in the cookie itself, however cookies are used, so we must use the cookie-parser middleware before session().

Options

• name - cookie name (formerly known as key). (default: connect.sid)
• store - session store instance.
• secret - session cookie is signed with this secret to prevent tampering.
• proxy - trust the reverse proxy when setting secure cookies (via "x-forwarded-proto"). (default: false)
• cookie - session cookie settings.
  • (default: { path: '/', httpOnly: true, secure: false, maxAge: null })
• rolling - forces a cookie reset on response. The reset affects the expiration date. (default: false)
• resave - forces session to be saved even when unmodified. (default: true)

Cookie options

Please note that secure: true is a recommended option. However, it requires an https-enabled website, i.e., HTTPS is necessary for secure cookies. If for development or other reasons security is not a concern, just use:

app.use(cookieParser())
app.use(session({
    secret: 'keyboard cat'
  , name: 'sid'
  , proxy: true // if you do SSL outside of node.
}))

By default cookie.maxAge is null, meaning no "expires" parameter is set so the cookie becomes a browser-session cookie. When the user closes the browser the cookie (and session) will be removed.

req.session

To store or access session data, simply use the request property req.session, which is (generally) serialized as JSON by the store, so nested objects are typically fine. For example below is a user-specific view counter:

app.use(cookieParser())
app.use(session({ secret: 'keyboard cat', cookie: { maxAge: 60000 }}))

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  var sess = req.session
  if (sess.views) {
    sess.views++
    res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html')
    res.write('<p>views: ' + sess.views + '</p>')
    res.write('<p>expires in: ' + (sess.cookie.maxAge / 1000) + 's</p>')
    res.end()
  } else {
    sess.views = 1
    res.end('welcome to the session demo. refresh!')
  }
})

Session.regenerate()

To regenerate the session simply invoke the method, once complete a new SID and Session instance will be initialized at req.session.

req.session.regenerate(function(err) {
  // will have a new session here
})

Session.destroy()

Destroys the session, removing req.session, will be re-generated next request.

req.session.destroy(function(err) {
  // cannot access session here
})

Session.reload()

Reloads the session data.

req.session.reload(function(err) {
  // session updated
})

Session.save()

req.session.save(function(err) {
  // session saved
})

Session.touch()

Updates the .maxAge property. Typically this is not necessary to call, as the session middleware does this for you.

req.session.cookie

Each session has a unique cookie object accompany it. This allows you to alter the session cookie per visitor. For example we can set req.session.cookie.expires to false to enable the cookie to remain for only the duration of the user-agent.

Cookie.maxAge

Alternatively req.session.cookie.maxAge will return the time remaining in milliseconds, which we may also re-assign a new value to adjust the .expires property appropriately. The following are essentially equivalent

var hour = 3600000
req.session.cookie.expires = new Date(Date.now() + hour)
req.session.cookie.maxAge = hour

For example when maxAge is set to 60000 (one minute), and 30 seconds has elapsed it will return 30000 until the current request has completed, at which time req.session.touch() is called to reset req.session.maxAge to its original value.

req.session.cookie.maxAge // => 30000

Session Store Implementation

Every session store must implement the following methods

• .get(sid, callback)
• .set(sid, session, callback)
• .destroy(sid, callback)

Recommended methods include, but are not limited to:

• .length(callback)
• .clear(callback)

For an example implementation view the connect-redis repo.