Sessions in Node.JS

Question

I'm very new to Node.JS and I can't seem to find a way to store Sessions, or at least not a official way.

I read you can do it with redis I found that express has it's own Session handler and I found a git

Now I don't know which method to use... I'm from a PHP background where it was really easy to do this.

Any help is appreciated!

I would prefer not to install any more modules, I am currently using Express so if someone can send me a detailed guide to Express's session handler I'll really appreciate it!

Answer 1

Check out this article.

NODE.JS AND EXPRESS - SESSIONS

It even covers method to persistent data with redis and MongoDB.

Answer 2

First of all, you need to use the proper middleware or include it when you are setting up your express app.

app.use(express.cookieParser());
app.use(express.session({secret: 'this is the secret'}));  

or

express --sessions myapp  

both the cookieParser and sessions middleware are required also, the order matters.
After you include the required middleware, a sessions object is added to every request and you can set and get properties on the object.

setting:

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  req.session.user = 'mike';
  res.send('index');
});

getting:

app.get('/about', function(req, res) {
  var user = req.session.user;
  res.send("I know you, you're" + user + '!');
});