Session Module

Introduction to Session Module

The session module is used to store user data between different requests. It only supports saving the session id into a cookie, so if the client doesn’t support cookies, it won’t work.

It is inspired by database/sql, which means: one interface, multiple implementations. By default it supports four saving providers: memory, file, redis and mysql.

Install session module:

go get github.com/astaxie/beego/session

Basic Usage:

Import package first:

import (
	"github.com/astaxie/beego/session"
)

Then initialize a global variable as the session manager:

var globalSessions *session.Manager

Then initialize data in your main function:

func init() {
	globalSessions, _ = session.NewManager("memory", `{"cookieName":"gosessionid", "enableSetCookie,omitempty": true, "gclifetime":3600, "maxLifetime": 3600, "secure": false, "sessionIDHashFunc": "sha1", "sessionIDHashKey": "", "cookieLifeTime": 3600, "providerConfig": ""}`)
	go globalSessions.GC()
}

Paramters of NewManager:

1. Saving provider name: memory, file, mysql, redis
2. A JSON string that contains the config information.
   1. cookieName: Cookie name of session id saved on the client
   2. enableSetCookie, omitempty: Whether to enable SetCookie, omitempty
   3. gclifetime: The interval of GC.
   4. maxLifetime: Expiration time of data saved on the server
   5. secure: Enable https or not. There is cookie.Secure while configure cookie.
   6. sessionIDHashFunc: SessionID generator function. sha1 by default.
   7. sessionIDHashKey: Hash key.
   8. cookieLifeTime: Cookie expiration time on the client. 0 by default, which means life time of browser.
   9. providerConfig: Provider-specific config. See below for more information.

Then we can use session in our code:

func login(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	sess, _ := globalSessions.SessionStart(w, r)
	defer sess.SessionRelease(w)
	username := sess.Get("username")
	if r.Method == "GET" {
		t, _ := template.ParseFiles("login.gtpl")
		t.Execute(w, nil)
	} else {
		sess.Set("username", r.Form["username"])
	}
}

Here is methods of globalSessions:

• SessionStart Return session object based on current request.
• SessionDestroy Destroy current session object.
• SessionRegenerateId Regenerate a new sessionID.
• GetActiveSession Get active session user.
• SetHashFunc Set sessionID generator function.
• SetSecure Enable Secure of cookie or not.

The returned session object is a Interface. Here are the methods:

• Set(key, value interface{}) error
• Get(key interface{}) interface{}
• Delete(key interface{}) error
• SessionID() string
• SessionRelease()
• Flush() error

Saving Provider Config

We’ve already seen configuration of memory provider. Here is the config of the others:

• mysql:

  All the parameters are the same as memory’s except the fourth param, e.g.:

    username:password@protocol(address)/dbname?param=value
  

  For details see the go-sql-driver/mysql documentation.

• redis:

  Connection config: address,pool,password

    127.0.0.1:6379,100,astaxie
  

• file:

  The session save path. Create new files in two levels by default. E.g.: if sessionID is xsnkjklkjjkh27hjh78908 the file will be saved as ./tmp/x/s/xsnkjklkjjkh27hjh78908

    ./tmp
  

Creating a new provider

Sometimes you need to create your own session provider. Session module uses interfaces, so you can implement this interface to create your own provider easily.

// SessionStore contains all data for one session process with specific id.
type SessionStore interface {
	Set(key, value interface{}) error     // Set session value
	Get(key interface{}) interface{}      // Get session value
	Delete(key interface{}) error         // Delete session value
	SessionID() string                    // Get current session ID
	SessionRelease(w http.ResponseWriter) // Release the resource & save data to provider & return the data
	Flush() error                         // Delete all data
}

type Provider interface {
	SessionInit(maxlifetime int64, savePath string) error
	SessionRead(sid string) (SessionStore, error)
	SessionExist(sid string) bool
	SessionRegenerate(oldsid, sid string) (SessionStore, error)
	SessionDestroy(sid string) error
	SessionAll() int // Get all active session
	SessionGC()
}

At last, register your provider:

func init() {
	// ownadapter is an instance of session.Provider
	session.Register("own", ownadapter)
}