How to update req.user session object set by passportjs?

Question

I'm trying to do this since a lot of days but all my tests fails...

Users on my platform connect them by using passportjs strategies (paypal, facebook, google...).

When the user is connected I write his nickname on the right in the header. The html code of the header is generated from a handlebars template, and when this partial is served by expressjs, I send the req.user session object to the template in order to write nickname and other informations...

By the way, this works great but I have a problem when the user update his nickname from his profile, I can't update session object on the server side and if the user reload the page, the old nickname appears again.

And I don't want to request user informations from DB every time a user load a page, so i want to keep this config :

// -- Passport session setup
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) { done(null, user); });
passport.deserializeUser(function(obj, done) { done(null, obj); });

My middleware to set locals :

// -- Set accessible datas from the template
res.locals = _.extend(res.locals, {
    user: req.user,
    query: req.url,
    title: app.config.title,
    url: app.config.url
});

My fails :

// Trying to update req.user directly : not persistent
req.user.nickname = User.get('nickname');

// Trying to update passport session : exception error
req.session.passport.user = User.toJSON();

// Trying to replace full session object : not persistent
var session = req.session;
session.passport.user = User.toJSON();
req.session = session;

Any suggestion ?

For moment, only a logout then a login works... It's not really efficient :)

EDIT :

// Application router
var Router = require('./helpers/router.js');

// Create Express Server
var app = express().http().io();

// -- Init app router
var router = new Router(app);

// -- Framework Middleware
app.use(router.middleware); 

#########################
/***
 * APP ROUTER
 **/

// Export router
module.exports = function(app) {

    // Set instance
    var router = this;

    // Returns routes register & middleware methods
    return {

        // -- Register routes
        register: function() {
            requirejs(['routes'], function(routes) {
                _.each(routes, function(name, route) {
                    app.get(route, function(req, res, next) {
                        requirejs(['views/'+name], function(view) {
                            if ( view ) {
                                var _view = new view(_.extend(req.params, {server: {req: req, res: res, next: next}})); 
                                _view.render(name, req, res, next); 
                            }
                            else {
                                next();
                            }
                        }, function (err) {
                            console.log('error' + err)

                        });
                    }); 
                });
            });
        },

        // -- Bind middleware
        middleware: function(req, res, next) {

            // Get the current path
            console.log("Middleware :: "+req.url);

            // Add user informations
            res.locals = _.extend(res.locals, {
                user: req.user,
                query: req.url,
                title: app.config.title,
                url: app.config.url
            });

            // Go next 
            next(); 

        }
    }
}

user_2034089 · Answer

Quan Duong's answer was the most useful to me, but here is a bit more realistic scenario:

async function foo(req, res) {
  // get some data from somewhere
  const newNickname = req.body.nickname;

  // update the user database somehow - e.g. mongodb 
  const users = db.getCollection('users');
  await users.updateOne({
    _id: req.user._id
  }, {
    $set: {
      nickname: newNickname
    }
  });

  // create a temporary copy of the user w/ the updated property
  const updatedUser = req.user;
  updatedUser.nickname = newNickname

  // persist the change to the session
  req.login(updatedUser, async(error) => {
    if (error) {
      res.json({
        err: 'Sorry, there was an error updating your account.'
      });
      return;
    }

    /* 
       maybe you need to call another function from here that uses the updated info before 
       responding to the original request
    */
    try {
      await bar(req.user);
    } catch (error) {
      res.json({
        err: 'Sorry, there was an error updating your account.'
      });
      return;
    }

    // done
    res.send(200);
  });
}

How to update req.user session object set by passportjs?

5 Answers