Electron set cookie

Question

I am new to electron and converting an web app to desktop application.I am loading pages from file system.Cookies are working if pages are served from web server but when I load pages from local folder I am not able to save them. I am saving cookie using document.cookie in web.I want to know how I can I enable file:// cookies in electron .

Regards

Motor

why do you need a cookie from the file system? – Ganof

I want to use web as it is in electron app .is there a way to do that – Motor

sounds like an x-y problem. – Ganof

and I am not able to save cookies because of file:// protocol – Motor

Electron 9, nothing is working, please help – Orville

Answer 1

OK, I got it working with Electron 5. Below are the relevant bits based on @zahid-nisar's solution, and below that a full sample Electron main.js to show how it all fits together. Obviously, change the location of your app in mainWindow.loadURL('app://www/index.html');.

Relevant code to insert in main.js:

const { protocol } = require('electron');

protocol.registerSchemesAsPrivileged([{
    scheme: 'app',
    privileges: {
        standard: true,
        secure: true
    }
}]);

Inside app.on('ready') function:

protocol.registerFileProtocol('app', (request, callback) => {
    const url = request.url.substr(6);
    callback({
        path: path.normalize(`${__dirname}/${url}`)
    });
}, (error) => {
    if (error) console.error('Failed to register protocol');
});

Then, inside your createWindow function, load your app like this:

mainWindow.loadURL('app://www/index.html');

And finally, here is a complete sample main.js with the above code (plus extras that I need, like Service Worker):

// Modules to control application life and create native browser window
const {
    app,
    protocol,
    BrowserWindow
} = require('electron');
const path = require('path');

// This is used to set capabilities of the app: protocol in onready event below
protocol.registerSchemesAsPrivileged([{
    scheme: 'app',
    privileges: {
        standard: true,
        secure: true,
        allowServiceWorkers: true,
        supportFetchAPI: true
    }
}]);

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
let mainWindow;

function createWindow() {
    // Create the browser window.
    mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800,
        height: 600
        //, webPreferences: {
        //     preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js')
        // }
    });

    // and load the index.html of the app.
    mainWindow.loadURL('app://www/index.html');
    // DEV: Enable code below to check cookies saved by app in console log
    // mainWindow.webContents.on('did-finish-load', function() {
    //     mainWindow.webContents.session.cookies.get({}, (error, cookies) => {
    //       console.log(cookies);
    //     });
    // });

    // Open the DevTools.
    // mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools()

    // Emitted when the window is closed.
    mainWindow.on('closed', function () {
        // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
        // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
        // when you should delete the corresponding element.
        mainWindow = null;
    });
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.on('ready', () => {
    protocol.registerFileProtocol('app', (request, callback) => {
        const url = request.url.substr(6);
        callback({
            path: path.normalize(`${__dirname}/${url}`)
        });
    }, (error) => {
        if (error) console.error('Failed to register protocol');
    });
    // Create the new window
    createWindow();
});

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
    // On macOS it is common for applications and their menu bar
    // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
    if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit();
});

app.on('activate', function () {
    // On macOS it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
    // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
    if (mainWindow === null) createWindow();
});

// In this file you can include the rest of your app's specific main process
// code. You can also put them in separate files and require them here.

Sexdecillion

In this line mainWindow.loadURL('app://www/index.html'); I take it www is the directory index.html is in. My main question is should this automatically load the page ? I haven't had any luck with this in v7.1 – Adah

@Sexdecillion Can you PLEASE share your COOKIE URL ?? electronWindow.webContents.session.cookies.set( { url: ??????? – Samuelson

@Sexdecillion now I try this app://C:\mypath\dist\ssw\index.html THANKS!! – Samuelson

can you tell me why is it "app://" instead of "file://" – Partner

@Partner The code above was code used to register a scheme app:// to use with the app. However, there have been lots of changes with more recent Electron, including a new security model. Many APIs now work fine with the file:// protocol. I would recommend sticking with file:// unless you have a good reason to register another protocol. – Sexdecillion

Answer 2

Well, I want to answer my question in case somebody is having the same problem. I have fixed the cookie problem by registerStandardSchemes. The sample code is as follows and code works for saving cookies from web pages as well:

protocol.registerStandardSchemes(["app"], {
    secure: true
});

and on ready event

protocol.registerFileProtocol('app', (request, callback) => {
    const urls = request.url.substr(6)
    const parsedUrl = url.parse(urls);
    // extract URL path
    const pathname = `.${parsedUrl.pathname}`;
    // based on the URL path, extract the file extention. e.g. .js, .doc, ...
    const ext = path.parse(pathname).ext;
    callback({
       path: path.normalize(`${__dirname}/${parsedUrl.pathname}`)
    })
}, (error) => {
    if (error) {
        console.error('Failed to register protocol');
    }
});

Motor

This doesn't work any more in Electron 5. protocol.registerStandardSchemes has been replaced with protocol.registerSchemesAsPrivileged(customSchemes), and even substituting that with the secure customScheme doesn't seem to be working for me. I find it hard to believe that something as simple as supporting document.cookie in the code of a webapp is this hard in Electron, and there is no info anywhere except a few helpful posts like this on Stackexchange. – Sexdecillion

Answer 3

Follow the documentation to get it done, and use the standard.https://electronjs.org/docs/api/cookies

  const {session} = require('electron')

      // Query all cookies.
      session.defaultSession.cookies.get({}, (error, cookies) => {
        console.log(error, cookies)
      })

      // Query all cookies associated with a specific url.
      session.defaultSession.cookies.get({url: 'http://www.github.com'}, (error, cookies) => {
        console.log(error, cookies)
      })

      // Set a cookie with the given cookie data;
      // may overwrite equivalent cookies if they exist.
      const cookie = {url: 'http://www.github.com', name: 'dummy_name', value: 'dummy'}
      session.defaultSession.cookies.set(cookie, (error) => {
        if (error) console.error(error)
      })

Inane

I am not able to save cookie on file:// protocol – Motor

@ZahidNisar did you figure out how to set on file://? – Fichu

@Fichu no I was not able to save cookie in file:// in electron so I use my registerStandardSchemes to load files – Motor

Oh i see your solution below now, thanks for sharing! – Fichu

Answer 4

There are two possible scenarios:

1- Remote URL if you are trying to load a remote URl i.e

new BrowserWindow().loadURL('www.example.com')

than you can set/get cookies by modifying default session and these cookies will be used in all requests to that URL

const { session } = require('electron')

// Query all cookies.
session.defaultSession.cookies.get({})
  .then((cookies) => {
    console.log(cookies)
  }).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error)
  })

// Query all cookies associated with a specific url.
session.defaultSession.cookies.get({ url: 'http://www.github.com' })
  .then((cookies) => {
    console.log(cookies)
  }).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error)
  })

// Set a cookie with the given cookie data;
// may overwrite equivalent cookies if they exist.
const cookie = { url: 'http://www.github.com', name: 'dummy_name', value: 'dummy' }
session.defaultSession.cookies.set(cookie)
  .then(() => {
    // success
  }, (error) => {
    console.error(error)
  })

refrence : electron cookies api

2-Local URL if you are trying to load a local URl i.e

new BrowserWindow().loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/index.html`)

OR

new BrowserWindow().loadFile('index.html')

and you are using fetch API or XMLHTTPrequest in your local HTML file(index.html) to send GET/POST request to a webserver and trying to set or retrieve cookies, I have bad news for you, I searched for four to five hours and didnt found any simple method that allows you to set or retrieve cookies using fetch or XMLHTTPRequest. Only solution I went for is to enable node integration in BrowserWindow and use nodes https and http modules. My code:

app.js/index.js (entry point)

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');
app.on('ready', () => {
    let mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
        webPreferences: {
            nodeIntegration: true,
            contextIsolation: false,
        },
    });
    mainWindow.loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/main.html`);
});

main.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Data Set</title>
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-EVSTQN3/azprG1Anm3QDgpJLIm9Nao0Yz1ztcQTwFspd3yD65VohhpuuCOmLASjC" crossorigin="anonymous">
</head>

<body>
    <div class="d-flex vw-100 vh-100 justify-content-center align-items-center">
        <form id="jform" class="text-center">
            <input type="text" class=" mt-3 form-control" id="jcaptcha" placeholder="Type captcha here">
            <button type="submit" id="sbmt" class="btn w-100 btn-primary mt-2 d-block">Submit</button>
        </form>
    </div>
    <script src="helper.js"></script>
    <script src="main.js"></script>
</body>

</html>

helper.js

const https = require('https');

//  proxy setup to debug requests using Fiddler
// process.env.NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED = '0';
// const proxy = require("node-global-proxy").default;
// proxy.setConfig({
//   http: "http://127.0.0.1:8888",
//   https: "http://127.0.0.1:8888",
// });
// proxy.start();

function sendHttpsGetRequest(targetUrl, cookies, callback) {
    const requestOptions = {
        method: 'GET',
        headers: {
            'Cookie': cookies.join('; ')
        },
    };

    const getRequest = https.get(targetUrl, requestOptions, (response) => {
        let data = '';

        response.on('data', (chunk) => {
            data += chunk;
        });

        response.on('end', () => {
            callback(null, data, response.headers);
        });
    });

    getRequest.on('error', (error) => {
        callback(error, null);
    });

    getRequest.end();
}

function sendHttpsPostRequest(targetUrl, cookies, postData, callback) {
    const postRequestOptions = {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
            'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
            'Content-Length': postData.length,
            'Cookie': cookies.join('; '),
        },
    };

    const postRequest = https.request(targetUrl, postRequestOptions, (response) => {
        let data = '';

        response.on('data', (chunk) => {
            data += chunk;
        });

        response.on('end', () => {
            callback(null, data, response.headers);
        });
    });

    postRequest.on('error', (error) => {
        callback(error, null, null);
    });

    postRequest.write(postData);
    postRequest.end();
}

// Usage :
const targetUrl = 'https://example.com';
const cookies = ['cookie1=abc', 'cookie2=def']; 
const postData = 'key1=value1&key2=value2';
sendHttpsGetRequest(targetUrl, cookies, (error, data, headers) => {
    if (error) {
        console.log('GET Request Error:', error);
    } else {
        var redirect = headers['location']
        var cookie = headers['set-cookie']
        var response_text = data
    }
});

sendHttpsPostRequest(targetUrl, cookies, postData, (error, data, headers)=>{
        if (error) {
            console.log('POST Request Error:', error);
        } else {
            var redirect = headers['location']
            var cookie = headers['set-cookie']
            var response_text = data
        }
})

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