Question

I have done this before… I don’t follow what I’m doing wrong this time, but I’ve been struggling for a couple of hours and now consider myself mentally blocked. The corresponding code:

app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(i18next.handle);
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'swig');
app.set('view cache', false);
var session_store = new RedisStore({ client : redis_client});
app.use(express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions : true, showStack : true}));
app.use(express.cookieParser());
app.use(express.session({ store : session_store, secret : SESSION_SECRET, key : "sid" }));
app.use(app.router);

Then when handling requests, here’s just an example:

app.get('/session_test', function (req, res, next) {
  console.log(req.session); //undefined
});

Connection to redis is working just fine. No errors are shown. Then, when trying to access it from the request, the req.session is undefined. The browser is sending the correct sid.

I’m no expert on the exact flow that occurs during the request, but after debugging, it seems as if the router was being called before the session middleware.

Thanks in advance for any and all the likely help. I will provide any code I can, I’m unsure what might be of your help.

Here’s more code.
server.js

  //Dependency modules
var express = require('express'),
  app = express.createServer(),
  //Application dependency modules
  settings = require('./settings'), //app settings
  routes = require('./routes'), //http routes
  rtroutes = require('./rtroutes'); //real time communication routes (io)

var io = require('socket.io').listen(app);
var appWithSettings = settings.setup(io, app);

routes.settings.setup(appWithSettings);
rtroutes.settings.setup(io, appWithSettings);

No routes are added until routes.settings.setup is called. settings (which is the global settings) is a pretty big file. That’s where all configuration is done. Settings are not added until settings.setup method is called too. Here’s a cut of the file:

//Dependency modules
var express = require('express'),
  redis = require('redis'),
//Important configuration values
var SESSION_SECRET = 'some secret thing which doesnt belong to stackoverflow!',
    insert_other_variables_here = "lalala";

//Computed general objects

var RedisStore = require('connect-redis')(express),
  redis_client = redis.createClient(REDIS_PORT, REDIS_HOST);

exports.setup = function (io, app) {
  app.configure(function () {
    app.use(express.bodyParser());
    app.use(i18next.handle);
    app.use(express.methodOverride());
    app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
    app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
    app.set('view engine', 'swig');
    app.set('view cache', false);
    var session_store = new RedisStore({ client : redis_client});
    app.use(express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions : true, showStack : true}));
    app.use(express.cookieParser());
    console.log("ABOUT TO ADD SESSION STORE MIDDLEWARE");
    app.use(express.session({ store : session_store, secret : SESSION_SECRET, key : "sid" }));
    console.log("AND NOW ADDED THE SESSION STORE MIDDLEWARE");
    app.use(app.router);
  });

  app.configure('development', function () {
     //some things in here, but nothing that affects app. I have commented this
     //for debugging and it changed nothing
  });

  app.configure('production', function () {
    //mostly configuration for io and some caching layers, as well as servers info
    app.use(express.errorHandler());
    app.use(express.logger({ stream : logFile }));
  });
  app.listen(WEB_PORT);
  return {
    app : app,
    //some other stuff that isn't relevant
  }
}

I have 25 routes split in 4 different files (somehow I didn’t have a need for session until now, since I was delaying some parts and everything needed was done with Mongoose). Here’s an example of how it is being done (with fake names):

routes/index.js

export.settings = require("./settings");

routes/settings.js

exports.setup = function (app_settings) {
  require("./route1")(app_settings);
  require("./route2")(app_settings);
  require("./route3")(app_settings);
};

Here’s a stripped out “route1” file (“routes/route1.js”):

module.exports = function (app_settings) {
  var app = app_settings.app;
  console.log("ABOUT TO ADD ROUTES")
  app.get("/signin", function (req, res, next) {
    console.log(req.session); //this will be undefined
  });
  app.get("/register", function (req, res, next) {
  });
  app.get('/language', function (req, res, next) {
  });
  app.post('/settings', function (req, res, next) {
  });
  console.log("ADDED ROUTES NOW!")
}

Answer 1

Whenever you define a route, the router gets automatically inserted into whatever the middleware stack is at the time (subsequent attempts to insert it deliberately will be ignored). Are you sure you aren’t defining any routes before you set the session handler?