request session not persistent - express-session - node.js

Question

I'm trying to have a session containing user data in the node.js/express FW.
I'm using express-session. I'm not using session store yet.
I have 2 pages in the client (angular) where I iterate between - Login and Dashboard. The idea is to create the session after successful login, then routing to the dashboard page. In the dashboard page I have an anchor with routinlink to the login:
<a [routerLink]="['/login']" >BackToLogin</a>
When navigating back to the loginPage (when activating a route), I execute a service with an end-point to the express server which check if the request has a session with a request in it (I expect it to be). The problem is that I see that the session is not the same session (the id changes)
See my code:
Node.js side - server.js file:
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const cors = require('cors');
const session = require ('express-session');
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
const SESS_NAME = 'sid';
app.use(session({
name:SESS_NAME,
key: 'user_sid',
resave:false,
saveUninitialized:false,
secure: process.env.NODE_ENV ==="production",
secret:'<some random text>',
cookie:{
httpOnly: true,
secure: process.env.NODE_ENV ==="production",
expires: 60000
}
}));
app.use(bodyParser.text());
app.use(bodyParser);
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({
extended: true
}));
app.use(cors()); //No limitation for test reasons
app.use(cookieParser());
//disabled on purpose
//var sessionManagement = require('./middleware/sessionManagement');
// API
app.use("/", require("./api/v1/routes.js"))//This file includes:
/*
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
router.use("/login", require('./login'));
router.use("/session", require('./session'));
module.exports = router;
*/
...etc
app.listen(config.port, () => console.log(`Process ${process.pid}: Listening on port ${config.port}`));
login.js on the server: responsible for validating user and store user data in session:
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
const schema = require('./objectSchemaJson.schema.json');
const scehmaCheck = require('../../middleware/checkForSchema')(schema);//this is
a schema check (middleware) - if suceeded continue (next)
const storeSession = (req, dataResult) =>
{
if (<dataResult return with valid use data>) //This is "where the magic happanes"
{
req.session.user = {
username: <get userName from dataResult>,
ID: <Get ID from dataResult>,
Role: <Get Role from dataResult>
}
}
}
router.use("/", scehmaCheck, (req, res, next) => {
return GetUserDataFROmDB(req.body).then((dataResult) => { //reaching the DB - not mentioned here on purpose
storeSession(req, dataResult); // This is where the session set with user data
res.status(200).json(dataResult);
}).catch((err) => {
next({
details: err
})
});
});
module.exports = router;
This is the end point on the server that responsible for getting the session - session.js - This is where the problem appears - the res.session has a session ID which is different that the one I created after the login
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
hasSession : function(req, res) //This is where the problem appears - the res.session has a session ID which is different that the one I created after the login
{
if (req.session.user)
{
res.status(200).json(
{
recordsets: [{Roles: req.session.Roles, UserName: req.session.user.username}]
});
}
else{
res.status(200).json({});
}
}
router.use("/", (req, res, next) => { return sessionManagement.hasSession(req, res, next)});
module.exports = router;
Client side:
//HTML:
<div>
<label>Username:</label>
<input type="text" name="username" [(ngModel)]="userName" />
</div>
<div>
<label>Password:</label>
<input type="password" name="password" [(ngModel)]="password"/>
</div>
<div>
<button (click)="login()">Login</button>
</div>
//COMPONENT:
login()
{
this.srv.login(this.userName, this.password).subscribe(result =>
{
if (<result is valid>)
{
this.router.navigate(['/dashboard']);
}
}
);
}
//This reach the node.js endpoint and routing to the session.js end point - it is executes when the router-outlet activated in the app.component:
/*
onActivate(componentRef : any)
{
if (componentRef instanceof LoginComponent)
{
componentRef.getSession();
}
}
*/
getSession() : void
{
this.sessionService.getSession().subscribe( result =>
{
if (<result is valid>)
{
this.router.navigate(['/dashboard']);
}
});
}
I found a similar question on github - no solution yet:
https://github.com/expressjs/session/issues/515
but it might be a cookie <-> server configuration issue.

Answer 1

Found the problem - the root cause was that the client didn't send a cookie when making an httprequest.
2 things needed to be done in order to solve the problem:
1. CORS Definition
Set the CORS definition to creadentials: true along with the origin (the host name of the client, which is probably with a different port\hostname):
app.use(cors({
origin: config.origin,
credentials: true
}));
2. Set crendentials
For every http rest method (get and post, in my case) add withCredentials property with a value of true:
return this.http.get<any>(<path>, { withCredentials: true })
or
return this.http.post<any>(<path>, <body>, { withCredentials:true })