PassportJS: How to get req.user in my views

Question

I am using pssportjs with express 2.x and a sessions storage. After a login I am getting req.User only once. As soon as I redirect again req.User is undefined.

Here is my config:

passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
  done(null, user._id);
});

passport.deserializeUser(function(userId, done) {
  User.findOne({_id: userId} ,function(err, user){
    done(err, user);
  });
});

// Authentication Strategy
passport.use(new FacebookStrategy({
    clientID: CONFIG.fb.appId,
    clientSecret: CONFIG.fb.appSecret,
    callbackURL: CONFIG.fb.callbackURL
  },
  function(accessToken, refreshToken, profile, done) {
    // asynchronous verification, for effect...
    process.nextTick(function () {

      User.findOne({ 'accounts.uid': profile.id, 'accounts.provider': 'facebook' }, function(err, olduser) {

          if(olduser) {
            done(null, olduser);
          } else {
            var newuser       = new User();
            var account       = {provider: "facebook", uid: profile.id};
            newuser.accounts.push(account);
            newuser.firstname = profile.name.givenName;
            newuser.lastname  = profile.name.familyName;
            newuser.email     = "TBD...";

            newuser.save(function(err) {
              if(err) { throw err; }
              done(null, newuser);
            });
          }
        });
    });
  }
));

var app = module.exports = express.createServer();

// configure express
app.configure(function(){
  app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
  app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
  app.use(express.compiler({ src : __dirname + '/public', enable: ['less']}));
  app.use(express.cookieParser());
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());

  //app.use(express.session({ secret: "keyboard cat" }));
  app.use(express.session({
    secret: "victory cat",
    store: new MongoStore({
      url: CONFIG.dbMongo.url
      })
  }));
  app.use(passport.initialize());
  app.use(passport.session());
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
});

These are my routes:

app.get('/auth/facebook', passport.authenticate('facebook', { scope: ['user_status', 'user_photos'] }));

app.get('/auth/facebook/callback', passport.authenticate('facebook', { successRedirect: '/index', failureRedirect: '/' }));

app.get('/index', function(req, res) {

            res.render('index.ejs', {
                siteTitle: "Welcome",
                siteUrl: CONFIG.server.siteUrl,
                user: req.user
            });
});

And finally this is how I am trying to access the user object in my view:

<div class="page-header">
    <h3><%= siteTitle %></h3>
</div>  

<% if (!user) { %>
     <p>Not logged in !</p>
<% } else { %>
     <p>Hello, <%= user.firstname %> <%= user.lastname %>.</p>
<% } %>

After authenticating with facebook my view displays firstname and lastname correctly. After another page request req.User is undefiend (deserializing is not being invoced).

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Use dynamic helpers. Here's an example of my barebones user object:

app.dynamicHelpers({
    user: function(req, res){
        var roles, name;

        if (req.session && req.session.auth == true) {
            roles = ['member'];
            name = (req.session.user) ? req.session.user.name : 'Registered member';
            id = (req.session.user) ? req.session.user.id : 0;
        }
        else {
            roles = ['guest'];
            name = 'Guest';
            id = null;
        }

        return {
            name: name, 
            id: id,
            roles: roles,
            isGuest: roles.indexOf('guest') !== -1,
            isAdmin: roles.indexOf('admin') !== -1
        }
    }
});

Then from views you can simply use #{user.name} or if user.isAdmin etc as object user is now accessible to other parts of the app.

You can add it to app.js or require from an external file. I keep all of my dynamic helpers under /utils/helpers.js

Answer 2

Did you set passport middleware? From the document, you need to do

app.configure(function() {
  app.use(express.cookieParser());
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.session({ secret: 'keyboard cat' }));
  app.use(passport.initialize());
  app.use(passport.session());
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(express.static(YOUR_STATIC_DIR_PATH));
});

if you are using Express 3.x or Connect 2.x, set cookie secret instead of session secret

app.configure(function() {
  app.use(express.cookieParser('keyboard cat'));
  app.use(express.session());
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(passport.initialize());
  app.use(passport.session());
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(express.static(YOUR_STATIC_DIR_PATH));
});

Answer 3

All right I got it:

The mistake I did was not being in the code I posted above, which is correct. I had a wrong way of linking to URLs so I somehow forced express to create a new session every time I used one of the broken links. With the new session I also lost my req.user object.

So if you are having similar issues, also check your links inside your html.

Thank you everyone for your help.

Answer 4

app.post('/login', function(req, res){

const user = new User({
     username: req.body.username,
     password: req.body.password
});


req.login(user, function(err){
    if(!err){
        passport.authenticate("local")(req, res, function(){
            res.redirect('your rendered URL');
            // console.log(` username = ${user.username} and id = ${user.id}`);
            
        })

    }
    else{
        console.log(err);
    }
    
   
   
});

    req.session.user = user;

}

and then we can use this user anywhere we want I hope it help