Controlling Session Start with express and connect middleware

Question

Is there a way to control when a session starts with connect's session middleware?

For example, if I have express app config:

var app = express();
app.configure(function(){
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(express.cookieParser('secret'));
  app.use(express.session({ store:sessionStore, ... }));
});

Then on every request, if no session cookie is given, a session is started. What if I wanted to start a session only when the user has been authenticated?

For example, say I have two routes /protected and /login.

If someone hits /protected without a session cookie, the middleware will NOT start a new session. (req.session is null)
If someone hits /protected with a session cookie, the middleware will CHECK to see if there is a matching active session for the cookie and set req.session, but will not start a new session. (req.session could have a value or be null)
If someone hits /login with the correct params, then a session is started explicitly and a cookie is set only then.

The only way to start a session should be explicitly:

app.post('/login', function(req, res, next) {
  // connect to database and validate user...
  db.authenticate( req.body.user, req.body.pass, function(allow) {
    if (allow) {
      // START SESSION HERE
      // this will send set the cookie
    }
  });
}

Is there any way of accomplishing this with the existing connect session middleware?

kyokpae kyokpae · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-10T23:40:28

What you want to do is to remove this line:

app.use(express.session({ store:sessionStore, ... }))

Now sessions are disabled by default and it's up to you to decide which controller is going to use them:

var useSessions = express.session({ store:sessionStore, ... });

var preCb = function (req, res, next) {
  // authenticate and stuff
  // ....
  if (authenticated === true) {
     next();
  }
};

app.post('/login', useSessions, function(req, res, next) { ... });
app.post('/protected', preCb, useSessions, function(req, res, next) { ... });

Controlling Session Start with express and connect middleware

2 Answers