Question

I use the backend solution from django. I just want to get a username from the cookie or the session_key to get to know the user. How I can do it?

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.contrib.sessions.models import Session

def start(request, template_name="registration/my_account.html"):
    user_id = request.session.get('session_key')
    if user_id:
        name = request.user.username
        return render_to_response(template_name, locals())
    else:
        return render_to_response('account/noauth.html')

Only else is coming up. What am I doing wrong?

Am I right then that authenticated means he is logged in?

–> Okay this I got!
Firstly, if you have some clarification to a question, update the question, don’t post an answer or (even worse) another question, as you have done. Secondly, if the user is logged out, by definition he doesn’t have a username.

I mean the advantage of Cookies is to identify a user again. I just want to place his name on the webpage. Even if he is logged out. Or isnt’t it possible?

Answer 1

piquadrat has absolutely the right answer, but if for some reason you do need to get the user from the session, you call get_decoded() on the session object:

session_data = request.session.get_decoded()
user_id = session_data['_auth_user_id']