exporting/using express-session in another file

Question

What's the best/common way to use an express-session in other files? I have trouble integrating the session into my code. I was using auth tokens, but I would like to use sessions instead. I defined session in my server.js :

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

var app = express();
app.use(cookieParser('secret'));
app.use(session({
    key: 'user_sid',
    secret: 'secret',
    resave: false,
    saveUninitialized: false,
    cookie: {
        expires: 600000
    }
}));

// stuff

module.exports = {app, session};

And it works fine! But When I try to use it in my userController.js :

var express = require('express');
var {session} = require('./../server');

module.exports.login = (req, res) => {
  var body = _.pick(req.body, ['email', 'password']);
  User.findByEmailAndPassword(body.email, body.password).then((user) => {
    // console.log(req.session); // is undefined
    res.render('dashboard.hbs');
  }).catch((e) => {
    res.status(400).send();
  });
}

then req.session is undefined . I know what I'm doing isn't right, obviously, but what's the right way to do it?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think you don't have to export session at all, as you are telling your app to use it in server.js .

So the working fiddle should be looking like the following:

 const express = require('express'); var session = require('express-session'); var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser'); var app = express(); app.use(cookieParser('secret')); app.use(session({ key: 'user_sid', secret: 'secret', resave: false, saveUninitialized: false, cookie: { expires: 600000 } })); // stuff module.exports = app; 

and your controller:

 module.exports.login = (req, res) => { var body = _.pick(req.body, ['email', 'password']); User.findByEmailAndPassword(body.email, body.password).then((user) => { // console.log(req.session); // is undefined res.render('dashboard.hbs'); }).catch((e) => { res.status(400).send(); }); } 

I am considering that you are going to use this exported login function for a route, like

app.use('/login', require('yourCtrl.js').login);