How do I set a session cookie via BrowserSync middleware? - node.js

Question

I've recently moved from an Express web app to a BrowserSync app for nodejs. Using Express, if I wanted to set a cookie, my config would look something like this:
var express = require('express');
var session = require('express-session');
var finalhandler = require('finalhandler');
var serveStatic = require('serve-static'),
serve = serveStatic(__dirname);
var app = express();
app.use(session({ // see https://github.com/expressjs/session
secret: 'keyboard cat',
resave: false,
saveUninitialized: false
}))
.use(function(req, res, next) {
res.cookie('myCookie', 'my cookie value');
var done = finalhandler(req, res);
serve(req, res, done);
});
app.listen(8080);
My team has started using BrowserSync (via a gulp task), and my config, so far, looks something like this:
var gulp = require('gulp'),
browserSync = require('browser-sync'),
gulpLoadPlugins = require('gulp-load-plugins'),
plugins = gulpLoadPlugins();
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
browserSync({
server: {
baseDir: "./",
middleware: [
function(req, res, next) {
res.cookie('myCookie', 'my cookie value');
next();
}
]
},
port: 8080
});
});
However, the res object does not have a method named "cookie". Is there something similar to the session middleware for Expressjs that will work as BrowserSync middleware? Is there another way to set cookies in a BrowserSync server?

Answer 1

I had the same TypeError: res.cookie is not a function-error. The following configuration works for me.
browsersync: {
open: false,
port: 8080,
server: {
baseDir: distDir,
middleware: [
function(req, res, next) {
res.setHeader('set-cookie', 'name=value');
next();
}
]
}
},

Answer 2

The reason should be because res is a native response object from http https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_serverresponse
where cookie method is not available

Answer 3

Browser-sync uses connect, which has a slightly different API than express. This configuration worked for me to add a header and a cookie to my responses using browser-sync:
browsersync: {
open: false,
port: 8080,
server: {
baseDir: distDir,
middleware: [
function(req, res, next) {
res.setHeader('hello', 'world');
res.cookie('someCookie', 'cookieVal');
next();
}
]
}
},