g3z / node-connect-pg-simple

A simple, minimal PostgreSQL session store for Connect/Express

Connect PG Simple

A simple, minimal PostgreSQL session store for Express/Connect

Installation

npm install connect-pg-simple

Once npm installed the module, you need to create the session table in your database. For that you can use the [table.sql] (https://github.com/voxpelli/node-connect-pg-simple/blob/master/table.sql) file provided with the module:

psql mydatabase < node_modules/connect-pg-simple/table.sql

Or simply play the file via a GUI, like the pgAdminIII queries tool.

Usage

Examples are based on Express 4.

Simple example:

var session = require('express-session');

app.use(session({
  store: new (require('connect-pg-simple')(session))(),
  secret: process.env.FOO_COOKIE_SECRET,
  resave: false,
  cookie: { maxAge: 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 } // 30 days
}));

Advanced example showing some custom options:

var pg = require('pg')
  , session = require('express-session')
  , pgSession = require('connect-pg-simple')(session);

app.use(session({
  store: new pgSession({
    pg : pg,                                  // Use global pg-module
    conString : process.env.FOO_DATABASE_URL, // Connect using something else than default DATABASE_URL env variable
    tableName : 'user_sessions'               // Use another table-name than the default "session" one
  }),
  secret: process.env.FOO_COOKIE_SECRET,
  resave: false,
  cookie: { maxAge: 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 } // 30 days
}));

Express 3 (and similar for Connect):

var express = require('express');

app.use(session({
  store: new (require('connect-pg-simple')(express.session))(),
  secret: process.env.FOO_COOKIE_SECRET,
  cookie: { maxAge: 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 } // 30 days
}));

Advanced options

• pg - Recommended. If you want the session store to use the same database module (compatible with pg / pg.js) as the rest of your app, then send it in here. Useful as eg. the connection pool then can be shared between the module and the rest of the application. Also useful if you want this module to use the native bindings of pg as this module itself only comes with pg.js.
• ttl - the time to live for the session in the database – specified in seconds. Defaults to the cookie maxAge if the cookie has a maxAge defined and otherwise defaults to one day.
• conString - if you don't have your PostgreSQL connection string in the DATABASE_URL environment variable (as you do by default on eg. Heroku) – then you need to specify the connection string or object here so that this module that create new connections. Needen even if you supply your own database module.
• schemaName - if your session table is in another Postgres schema than the default (it normally isn't), then you can specify that here.
• tableName - if your session table is named something else than session, then you can specify that here.
• pruneSessionInterval - sets the delay in seconds at which expired sessions are pruned from the database. Default is 60 seconds. If set to false no automatic pruning will happen. Automatic pruning weill happen pruneSessionInterval seconds after the last pruning – manual or automatic.
• errorLog – the method used to log errors in those cases where an error can't be returned to a callback. Defaults to console.error(), but can be useful to override if one eg. uses Bunyan for logging.

Useful methods

• close() – if automatic interval pruning is on, which it is by default as of 3.0.0, then the timers will block any graceful shutdown unless you tell the automatic pruning to stop by closing the session handler using this method.
• pruneSessions([callback(err)]) – will prune old sessions. Only really needed to be called if pruneSessionInterval has been set to false – which can be useful if one wants improved control of the pruning.