'session' is undefined when using express / redis for session store

Question

I'm trying to use redis for sessions in my express app.

I do the following:

var express = require('express');
var RedisStore = require('connect-redis')(express);

app.configure('development', function(){     
    app.use(express.session({ secret: "password", 
                            store: new RedisStore({
                                          host: "127.0.0.1",
                                          port: "6379",
                                          db: "mydb"
                                        })  
          }));

Later on, in my app, if i do something like:

var whatever = req.session.someProperty;

I get:

Cannot read property 'someProperty' of undefined

This indicates that req.session is undefined (I can see this from a console.log entry in my config section)

I've definitely got redis running, and can see my app connects to it initially (using redis-cli monitor)

Defazio

Answer 1

Looks like you're missing:

app.use(express.cookieParser());

before your app.use(express.session(...)); call.

See here.

Roseliaroselin

I'm having the same problem, but I do have app.user(cookieParser()) thing – Nitz

Answer 2

Sessions won't work unless you have these 3 in this order:

app.use(express.cookieParser());
app.use(express.session());
app.use(app.router);

I'm not sure if router is mandatory to use sessions, but it breaks them if it's placed before them.

Graeco

I had app.use(app.router); before express.session, which seems to break it. – Anadromous

this answer was hard to find, should be somewhere in the docs. Upvoted! – Topical

This answer is more complete. You need to do both things: 1) enable cookieParser() and 2) move 'app.use(app.router);' to the bottom. I think this should be the correct answer. – Jannery

even with all 3 things in right order,req.session still undefined, do not know why. – Allan

Sir, I wish i could give you +2. You solved a TON of my problems – Pharmacology

Cheers.. !! Feeling nice to fix this. – Swine

How would this answer update since version 1.5.0? Currently, express-session is a separate module. According to the docs, "the cookie-parser middleware no longer needs to be used for this module to work" – Cinereous

I'm afraid I have to let someone else answer that. I abandoned node 5 years ago. – Graeco

Answer 3

Had the same problem, however it was caused by changes in the latest version of express.

You now need to pass express-session to the function connect-redis exports to extend session.Store:

var express = require('express');
var session = require('express-session')
var RedisStore = require('connect-redis')(session);

Solvency

Answer 4

Things have changed recently with Express 3 / Express 4. Please confirm you are using version 4.

The complete middleware concept changed. You need to install these middlewares manually. "express-session" is one of the 4.0 middlewares.

I recommend to read

http://scotch.io/bar-talk/expressjs-4-0-new-features-and-upgrading-from-3-0 and https://github.com/visionmedia/express/wiki/Migrating-from-3.x-to-4.x

Additionally some users were confused that the github repo itself is named just "session" but

npm install express-session

is correct.

Lindgren

This question was asked Apr 17 2012, therefore NOT related to version 4 – Defazio

For version 4: #31612420 – Dillydally

Answer 5

I had the same problem. It turned out that redis was simply configured to a different port.

Agonized

Thanks for putting me on the right track. I tripped over the fact that Heroku changed the REDIS_URL that I was using on my localhost. I could have known this as they mention this themselves: > "the REDIS config vars may change at any time. Relying on the config var outside of your Heroku app may result in you having to re-copy the value if it changes" devcenter.heroku.com/articles/… – Transpadane