Redis Cloud for sessions in node heroku app

Question

I have an express app that was using redis cloud to store sessions in Heroku. It was working fine a few months ago, but I have just revisited it and it is no longer working. It seems there is no session, and throws the error TypeError: Cannot read property 'user' of undefined, the offending line of code is

if (!req.session.user) {
...
...
}

Maybe I'm configuring things incorrectly

var session = require('express-session');
var RedisStore = require('connect-redis')(session);
var redis = require('redis-url').connect(config.redis_url);

var sessionMiddleware = session({
    store: new RedisStore({
        host: config.redis_host,
        port: config.redis_port
    }),
    secret: 'Its a secret.',
    cookie: { secure: true },
    saveUninitialized: true,
    resave: true
});

The corresponding config file is

module.exports = {
    mongo_url: process.env.MONGOLAB_URI || 'mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/psa',
    redis_url: process.env.REDISCLOUD_URL || 'redis://localhost:6379',
    redis_host: taken from process.env.REDISCLOUD_URL,
    redis_port: taken from process.env.REDISCLOUD_URL,
    port: process.env.PORT || 5000
};

This works locally forman start web when I define the session middleware as follows

var sessionMiddleware = session({
    secret: 'VkWdLXauq6ya',
    saveUninitialized: true,
    resave: true,
    store: new RedisStore({
        client: redis
    }),
    cookie: {
        path: '/',
        maxAge: 3600000
    },
    name: 'sessionCookie'
});

Hmmm - I have a feeling I'm missing something obvious but my Node-fu is so weak... time for the cavalry perhaps? — Itamar Haber, Jul 07 '15 at 14:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

1

Are you using the cookieParser middleware? You'll need:

app.use(express.cookieParser());

Seems like it is similar to this other stackoverflow question.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

Community

1
1

answered Jul 07 '15 at 14:59

stockholmux

1,169
11
24

cavalry arrives promptly :) – Itamar Haber Jul 07 '15 at 15:03
same problem, I'm using cookieParser – Herokiller Dec 13 '15 at 13:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 13 '15 at 15:19

How are you using the created session middleware? eg:

var sessionMiddleware = session({

That creates a Function that can be used in your express stack. However, it does nothing until you actually use it, like:

var app = express();
app.use(sessionMiddleware);

Redis Cloud for sessions in node heroku app

2 Answers2