Can't store variables in express session

Question

I am trying to build a session-based authentication for my web app. I have the following auth function:

function authenticate(req, res) {
  var body = req.body;

  getAuthUser(body.username, function (err, result) {

      if (hash(body.password) != result.password) {
          // invalid pass
          return;
      }

      req.session['user'] = result;
      res.redirect('/logged/panel');

      console.log(req.session); // 'user' session is displayed here
  });
}

I have also a middleware which ensures that user is authenticated when accessing secured content:

function validateRequest(req, res, next) {
  console.log(req.session); // 'user' session is not displayed here
  (req.session.user) ? next() : res.redirect('/login');
}

The problem is that my middleware does not see the stored variable by the authenticate function. Thank you in advance.

EDIT:

This is how I use my middleware:

router.use(validateRequest);

This answer may help you http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23260676/express-4-sessions-not-persisting-when-restarting-server — Lewis, Apr 27 '15 at 07:05
@VladMatvei where and how you are registering `validateRequest` as middleware? — Krzysztof Safjanowski, Apr 27 '15 at 07:44
added the line of code where I link the middleware to my route — Engineering Machine, Apr 27 '15 at 07:58

mjz19910 · Answer 1 · 2015-04-27T08:13:23.623

2

You dont have req in the other function as it is out of scope. You can put req in global scope then you can access it in any other function global.req=req and then referencing to it in the other function with global.req as the function will have the req passed to in in scope instead of the one from the top frame

I now figured it out the router is running before req.session.user is set to result

edited Apr 27 '15 at 08:13

answered Apr 27 '15 at 07:22

mjz19910

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1
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`window`? in `nodeJS`? – Krzysztof Safjanowski Apr 27 '15 at 07:43
I do have a req in my function. I can read other req properties but not the created session from authenticate function. I have added the line of code where I link my middleware to the route. – Engineering Machine Apr 27 '15 at 07:56
try just logging `req.session` – mjz19910 Apr 27 '15 at 08:04
with `req.session` I do see a session but the `user` property is missing – Engineering Machine Apr 27 '15 at 08:05
the user property has not been created yet as your router is seeing the var when you are routing information(html) – mjz19910 Apr 27 '15 at 08:07

Can't store variables in express session

1 Answers1