Get SESSIONID in nodeJS

Question

Now, after some hours of playing around with nodejs and socket.io, I'm getting a couple more problems - one being, that I need to get the sessionID inside node.js, whitout using app.get('/' ... - since that event doesnt seem to fire when socket.io connects, it only fires .on('connection', function( ...

var express = require('express')()
express.set('port', process.env.PORT || 8080)

var server = require('http').createServer(express)
var socket = require('socket.io').listen(server)

server.listen(express.get('port'))

// this event is fired, get('/', ... isnt!
server.on('connection', function(stream) {
    // ??
} )

The Session is initially created by the PHP application, as the user logs in. Session data is stored in the database, and the key I need to access that data is the SESSION ID. What's the easiest way to get to it? Like mentioned, I found a couple examples that used app.get('/' ... but I couldnt get that event to fire at all.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If the session data is being stored as a cookie (most likely), then you should be able to re-parse that data during the socket handshake. I posted code for that on this answer, but copied the code here as well:

io.configure(function () {
  io.set('authorization', function (handshakeData, callback) {

    var cookie = handshakeData.headers.cookie;

    // parse the cookie to get user data...

    // second argument to the callback decides whether to authorize the client
    callback(null, true);
  });
});

If the session data is being propagated in the URL, then you may be able to gather this information from handshakeData.url or handshakeData.query. You'll probably have to do your own experimentation.