cookie-session

What is cookie-session?

The cookie-session npm package is a simple middleware for managing session data using cookies. It stores session data on the client within a cookie, making it stateless and lightweight. This package is particularly useful for small to medium-sized applications where server-side session storage is not necessary.

What are cookie-session's main functionalities?

Basic Session Management

This code demonstrates basic session management using cookie-session. It sets up an Express application with cookie-session middleware, which stores session data in a cookie. The session data includes the number of views for the root URL.

const express = require('express');
const cookieSession = require('cookie-session');

const app = express();

app.use(cookieSession({
  name: 'session',
  keys: ['key1', 'key2'],
  maxAge: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 // 24 hours
}));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  req.session.views = (req.session.views || 0) + 1;
  res.send(`Number of views: ${req.session.views}`);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Custom Cookie Options

This code demonstrates how to customize cookie options with cookie-session. It includes options like httpOnly and secure to enhance security by ensuring the cookie is only accessible via HTTP(S) and only used over HTTPS.

const express = require('express');
const cookieSession = require('cookie-session');

const app = express();

app.use(cookieSession({
  name: 'session',
  keys: ['key1', 'key2'],
  maxAge: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000, // 24 hours
  httpOnly: true, // Ensures the cookie is only accessible via HTTP(S), not JavaScript
  secure: true // Ensures the cookie is only used over HTTPS
}));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  req.session.views = (req.session.views || 0) + 1;
  res.send(`Number of views: ${req.session.views}`);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Clearing Session Data

This code demonstrates how to clear session data using cookie-session. By setting req.session to null, the session data is cleared, effectively logging the user out.

const express = require('express');
const cookieSession = require('cookie-session');

const app = express();

app.use(cookieSession({
  name: 'session',
  keys: ['key1', 'key2'],
  maxAge: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 // 24 hours
}));

app.get('/logout', (req, res) => {
  req.session = null; // Clears the session data
  res.send('Logged out');
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Other packages similar to cookie-session

express-session

express-session is a popular session middleware for Express that stores session data on the server side. It supports various storage options like in-memory, Redis, MongoDB, etc. Unlike cookie-session, express-session is more suitable for larger applications where server-side session storage is necessary.

client-sessions

client-sessions is another middleware for managing session data using cookies. It provides more advanced features like encryption and tamper detection. Compared to cookie-session, client-sessions offers enhanced security features but may be more complex to set up.

cookie-parser

cookie-parser is a middleware for parsing cookies attached to the client request object. While it does not manage sessions directly, it can be used in conjunction with other session management libraries. It provides more control over cookie parsing and is often used alongside express-session.

README

cookie-session

Simple cookie-based session middleware.

Semantics

This module provides "guest" sessions, meaning any visitor will have a session, authenticated or not. If a session is new a Set-Cookie will be produced regardless of populating the session.

API

View counter example:

var express = require('express')
var session = require('cookie-session')

var app = express()

app.use(session({
  keys: ['key1', 'key2'],
  secureProxy: true // if you do SSL outside of node
}))

app.use(function (req, res, next) {
  var n = req.session.views || 0
  req.session.views = ++n
  res.end(n + ' views')
})

app.listen(3000)

Options

• name - The cookie name. Defaults to express:sess.
• keys - Keys with which to sign the cookie. See signed in cookie options. Multiple keys allows for using rotating credentials.
• secret - A string which will be used as single key if keys is not found.

Other options are passed to cookies.get() and cookies.set() allowing you to control security, domain, path, and signing among other settings.

Cookie Options

• maxage - a number representing the milliseconds from Date.now() for expiry.
• expires - a Date object indicating the cookie's expiration date (expires at the end of session by default).
• path - a string indicating the path of the cookie (/ by default).
• domain - a string indicating the domain of the cookie (no default).
• secure - a boolean indicating whether the cookie is only to be sent over HTTPS (false by default for HTTP, true by default for HTTPS).
• secureProxy - a boolean indicating whether the cookie is only to be sent over HTTPS (use this if you handle SSL outside your node process).
• httpOnly - a boolean indicating whether the cookie is only to be sent over HTTP(S), and not made available to client JavaScript (true by default).
• signed - a boolean indicating whether the cookie is to be signed (true by default). If this is true, another cookie of the same name with the .sig suffix appended will also be sent, with a 27-byte url-safe base64 SHA1 value representing the hash of cookie-name=cookie-value against the first Keygrip key. This signature key is used to detect tampering the next time a cookie is received.
• overwrite - a boolean indicating whether to overwrite previously set cookies of the same name (true by default). If this is true, all cookies set during the same request with the same name (regardless of path or domain) are filtered out of the Set-Cookie header when setting this cookie.

Read more here: https://github.com/jed/cookies

Session.isNew

Is true if the session is new.

Destroying a session

To destroy a session simply set it to null:

req.session = null

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013 Jonathan Ong [e-mail]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.