Question

I understand that req.flash() has been removed from express 3.x (source) and it’s recommended to use req.session directly (ie, req.session.messages).

This is not a problem, however I’m having a hard time figuring out how to display this information in the layout after redirects. I’ve tried something like

app.locals.messages = function() { return req.session.messages };

but we obviously don’t have access to the req object.

How can I display the contents of req.session.messages after a redirect?

Answer 1

Just do:

app.use(/* my session middleware */)
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  res.locals.messages = req.session.messages
  next()
})

and you will always have messages in your view. It really doesn’t have to be anymore complicated than that.

If you want, you can add your own flash function.

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  var session = req.session;
  var messages = session.messages || (session.messages = []);

  req.flash = function(type, message) {
    messages.push([type, message])
  }

  next()
})

And in your view just do message = messages.pop().