Accessing session variables in sailsjs view

Question

I am quite new to sailsjs and nodejs. I am trying to create an authentication page, wherein once a user is authenticated, I want to set

req.session.user = user.id
req.session.authenticated = true

I then need to access these values within my main layout.ejs file. I have done so by using

res.locals.user = _.clone( req.session.user )

However, I noticed that this clone method has to be called in every function of every controller so as to allow me to be able to access the user from within the views. Is there a better way of accessing session variables in sailsjs globbaly, without having to clone the req.session in every controller. An example of what I am doing can be found here:

http://pastebin.com/HyE2H4Kq

As you can see, I have called the clone method at the beginning of various functions within the controller.

Answer 1

The req object is available in your views by default, unless you overwrite res.locals completely. So you can access a session variable in your view with <%=req.session.user%> (if you're using EJS). You don't have to copy it explicitly into your locals.

Answer 2

for anyone using passport.js, session of the user is saved inside req.session.passport.user and you also can access it directly from the view

Answer 3

I have finally decided to go with a solution provided here as I found this to be the neatest solution.

I have created a config file called userdata.config in which I have the following code:

module.exports.userdata = {
    guest: true,
    authenticated: false
};

I am then accessing this in the controller as follows:

sails.config.userdata.authenticated = true;
sails.config.userdata.guest = false;
sails.config.userdata.user = sessionUser;

This is then accessed in the view as follows:

sails.config.userdata.user.firstName