Improve this doc

Sessions

SocketStream uses the Connect Session Store to ensure sessions can be easily shared between HTTP and Websocket requests using a similar API.

This means you're able to write data to a session from SocketStream and then use it in Express.js or any other page-based framework which uses Connect - especially useful when performing authentication.

Using Sessions over Websockets

For optimum speed and flexibility, session data is not retrieved by default when a websocket request is processed by the server. Before you do anything with sessions, you'll need to activate the internal session Request Middleware as shown below:

// server/rpc/app.js
exports.actions = function(req, res, ss) {

  // Load session data into req.session
  req.use('session');

  return {
    testAction: function(){
      console.log('This request now has session data:', req.session);
    }
  }
}
Getting/Setting Custom Session Data
// server/rpc/app.js
exports.actions = function(req, res, ss) {

  // Load session data into req.session
  req.use('session');

  return {
    getSession: function() {
      console.log('The contents of my session is', req.session);
    },
    updateSession: function(){
      req.session.myVar = 1234;
      req.session.cart = {items: 3, checkout: false};
      req.session.save(function(err){
        console.log('Session data has been saved:', req.session);
      });
    }
  }
}

Using Sessions over HTTP

The same session data is automatically loaded into req.session when accessed over HTTP. For example, append this route to your app.js file:

// app.js
ss.http.router.on('/updateSession', function(req, res) {
  req.session.myVar = 4321;
  res.end('req.session.myVar has been updated to', req.session.myVar);
});

Note: There is no need to call req.session.save() if you're calling res.end().

Session Stores

The in-memory Connect Session Store is used by default to allow you to start developing easily. Before your app goes into production you must use a Connect Session Store with a persistent backend to avoid memory leaks.

We have bundled the connect-redis store as standard as this makes an excellent choice. To use it, add the following line to your app.js file:

    // in app.js
    ss.session.store.use('redis');

Any Redis configuration can be passed to the second argument (e.g {port: 1234}).

Auto-expiring Sessions

By default sessions will expire within 30 days, unless the session is terminated beforehand (e.g. the user closes the browser). To set a different expiry time put the following in your app.js file:

    // in app.js
    ss.session.options.maxAge = 8640000;  // one day in milliseconds

Setting a Secret

By default the cookie parser will use 'SocketStream' as its secret. You should set your own secret in production:

    // in app.js
    ss.session.options.secret = crypto.randomBytes(32).toString();