we are in the process of building a new app in node.js with express that connects to our parse server backend. We have built native apps that already connect to our backend on iOS, Android and PHP. All of them have the ability to log in the user and store the session data securely.
I'ts my understanding that node.js doesn't really store sessions like for example in PHP you can store them as a file on the server or to memcache or redis and test against parse->currentUser() to check if its valid.
How does one do this with node.js? We cant store any session data in a cookie since thats not secure.
Is using express-sessions and redis a good way to handle this?
I'ts my understanding that node.js doesn't really store sessions like for example in PHP...
That's not a totally accurate understanding... it's more that Node.js doesn't really know or care how you handle your sessions. That's where frameworks like Express, and their modules express-session, come into play.
Is using express-sessions and redis a good way to handle this?
If you're using Express, yes. And, with that, you can use whatever session store you want, including Redis, Memcached, files, just like you're used to with PHP.
An approach that I've used in the past is to store your session ID in a cookie, but none of the session content. That will allow you to reconnect with a prior session, as long as it's still valid. You can also use LocalStorage if you want something a little more persistent than SessionStorage. If you want something really persistent, you can manually save your session data to your database, and have the user request it if their browser data has been cleared.
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I'm trying to build a CMS on Node.JS and this far i managed to build everything only by including MySQL module. I would like to continue building all the CMS core modules without the use of extern libraries like Express. I'm working now on the session for Login purposes. By now, i can create cookies with the header Set-Cookie where i store some information of the user to recognize its session when he/she loads all the pages in the site, but i still can't find some way to create session variables without the use of express or some other frameworks.
I'd be thankful if someone could give me some example.
First off, unless you're building things yourself just because you want to learn how to do it all yourself, there's really no reason to re-invent things that have already been well engineered in existing modules. Because this is server-side code, there's really no penalty for using an already tested module that does what you want. So, my first recommendation would be to use Express and express-session. It does all the session management for you and will give you lots more time to work on the aspects of your project that will really help it succeed or fail.
And, THE top benefit of using node.js in the first place is being able to use the huge library of existing code available through NPM and Github.
Conceptually, here's how a session works in the node.js/web browser client/server world.
Incoming request from client to web server.
Server creates some sort of guaranteed unique cookie value and sets that as a cookie on the response.
Server also creates a serve-side session object and puts that object into some data store with the session cookie value as an index into that data store.
Now every time a future request arrives from that same client, it will be accompanied with that session cookie.
On each incoming request, the server can grab the session cookie value, use it as the key to look up the corresponding session object and get it.
Any request handler can then read data from the session object or write data to the session object.
In this manner you can keep data associated with a particular client secure and safe on the server and usable from one request to another.
If you're going to implement your own session system, you have to be able to create these unique session cookies and create some sort of session storage (can be anything from a Map object in memory to a database), implement session expiration and session store cleanup and then provide appropriate middleware or utility functions that makes it easy to use on any individual http request.
My question is simple. How do I securely share laravel session information with my socket.io nodejs app. I've tried many different methods, none of them worked so I'm hoping a expert will pull through. I already know I don’t want to use JWT Tokens. So I guess that just leaves the session cookie data itself. I cannot figure out how to authenticate socket.io with the cookie so that’s what I need help with. I am storing sessions using redis, and using the default authentication system with laravel.
I’ve tried using this library which is great for parsing the session. But it does not authenticate with my socket.io server.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-laravel-session
If anyone knows how to fix this problem I would greatly appreciate some help.
I think, you have problem with authentication problem inside socket.io, idea is that you can't share the session from application to application easily, why? because this data is processed between the client's browser (cookie) and the server ( session ), if you want to connect Laravel and Socket.io, first you have to make some kind of flow like:
When user authenticates on website, to set cookie for socket.io as
well (if host is different).
In background you have to share the session data trough database (memcached, redis etc), and with cookie. As you know, if you set laravel session param to work with database, instead of using files, laravel will automatically start saving session data into DB, so it's easy to read the session params from database.
I think you are using node-laravel-session by wrong, I mean if you have node.js application on other server and you use getSessionFromFile, it will not work. make sure you are using it correctly and it'll work. It's easy process itself to make thing like that, but mostly problem is security when you have cross-project sessions.
Super simple question that I'm having trouble wrapping my head around.
When using sessions with nodejs, are the sessions stored in the users browser? Or are the sessions stored on the server?
For example, if I'm using the express-session or passport.session(), where are these session cookies stored?
As #robertklep mentioned, sessions (in the way you're using them) are stored on the client, but only contain a session ID. When your request hits the web server, it'll then look up the session ID to grab the account from some sort of database / cache, then use it for the remainder of the request lifecycle.
If you're interested on learning more about this, you might want to check out this screencast I made a while ago which covers exactly how cookies work, and why -- as well as how to store them securely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvviEA1pOXw
Furthermore, if you're looking to build a site that doesn't use 'typical' server-side sessions, and works with modern client-side front-end web frameworks like Angular.js / React.js / etc., you might want to investigate JSON Web Tokens (JWTs). These tokens allow you to create 'dumb' cookies that don't require a database lookup on the server, and can speed up your web apps / API services pretty dramatically: https://stormpath.com/blog/build-secure-user-interfaces-using-jwts/
Hope this helps!
The fine manual states:
Note Session data is not saved in the cookie itself, just the session ID. Session data is stored server-side.
express-session sends a cookie to the browser (which stores it), which contains a unique session id. The data itself is stored on the server (depending on which session store you use, this can be in memory, Redis, MongoDB, ...).
The session id in the cookie is merely used as a key to look up the actual data in the session store.
I'm investigating using Stormpath for our user Management.
I currently have a Sails.js application which uses Node.js / Express.js. Currently, session management is handled by the default Sails.js framework, which relies heavily on Express' session middleware.
Sessions are stored in a shared Redis database on production so that we can keep our multiple API servers stateless.
My question is will the two session management systems conflict and/or cause bugs? Do they have to be consolidated or can we safely keep them separate? if they have to be combined, how do you configure the middleware?
As a note we won't be storing much user data on Stormpath, we'll only be using them as a auth/token provider.
Thanks for the help!
I'm the author of the express-stormpath library, which is what I'm assuming you're evaluating.
You can indeed use your own sessions in addition to the stormpath ones. The way it works is like so:
Stormpath uses req.session to store a stormpathSession cookie. Any other cookies you create / store, will be handled by you completely.
It should work nicely with whatever session library you choose =)
I am currently developing a node.js webapp, which can access a subversion server with a nice web UI.
To access the server I need authentication data. My first attempt was to store them with app.set('username', 'theo')and app.set('password', 'start'). Later I saw, that this is a very bad idea, because then, the authdata are going to be in the app settings until it restarts.
My question is now, how can I store data during a session over multiple requests using nodejs and express?
PS: A database is sadly no option...
Ok, I just oversaw it. The express module express-session was what I needed :)
This is my code now:
var session = require('express-session')
app.use(session({ secret: 'supersecret' }))
And when I need the session I jsut go with
req.session.username = 'theo'
Just if anybody has the same trouble like me :)
You may use "mamcached" for store your session information using nodejs. Thorough this you may help in integration with any web server session also.
You can also use REDIS to store the sessions, even if the express falls you will still have the sessions on REDIS and the users won't have to authenticate again.
You can also use redis for nodejs and predis package for php redis. It is very easy for you.
All the best..!!!