req.isAuthenticated() returns FALSE (express-session, passport-local)

Question

Edit: I got the cookie to be set by transferring app.use(session({...})) from register.js to app.js before I declare use of the router in app.js. However, the problem - req.isAuthenticated() returning false, still persists.

I'm trying to build a sign up flow using passport-local, express-session and mongodb for my backend.

When I register a new user, it seems to work fine and the user gets created in my database as desired. I can also access req.user in my passport.authenticate() callback post registration. However, when I redirect to a new route using res.redirect(), req.isAuthenticated() returns false on my new route.

Upon checking the cookies in my browser, it seems that express-session never saves the session as it is supposed to. There is no cookie from my localhost. I've done hours of research, and most answers I've come across just relate to double-checking the sequence of code when initializing. I've done this countless times, as well as tried to use both passport.serializeUser(User.serializeUser()); and passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) { done(null, user.id); }); to make sure I'm doing that step correctly. I can't seem to figure out why I'm having this issue. Any and all help will be deeply appreciated! Relevant snippets from my code -

Register.js (Router)

var express = require('express');
const session = require('express-session');
const passport = require('passport');
const LocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy;
const passportLocalMongoose = require('passport-local-mongoose');
var router = express.Router();

const app = express();

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true}));

app.use(session({
  secret:"Edit Later.",
  resave:true,
  saveUninitialized:true
}));

app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());

const userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
  name:String,
  username:String,
  contactNumber:String
});

userSchema.plugin(passportLocalMongoose);

passport.use(new LocalStrategy(User.authenticate()));


passport.serializeUser(User.serializeUser());
passport.deserializeUser(User.deserializeUser());

router.post('/', function(req, res, next) {

  const reCaptchaKey = "<MYKEY>";
  var userCaptchaToken = req.body['g-recaptcha-response'];

  axios.post('https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify', null, {params: {
    secret: reCaptchaKey,
    response: userCaptchaToken
  }}).then(response => {
    if (response.data.success === true) {

  User.register({username: req.body.username, name: req.body.fullName}, req.body.password, 
  function(err, user) {
        if (err) {
          console.log(err);
          // res.redirect('/views/register.html');
        } else {
          passport.authenticate('local', {session:true})(req, res, function() {

              console.log(req.user);
              console.log(req.session);
              res.redirect('/profile');
              console.log("Done!");
          });
        }
      });

    } else if (response.data.success === false) {
      console.log("Captcha failed.");
    }
  }).catch(error => {
    console.log(error);
  });

});

module.exports = router;

Profile.js (Router)

const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();

router.get('/', function(req, res) {
  if (req.isAuthenticated()) {
    res.render('profile')
  } else {
    res.redirect('/register')
    console.log('Not a user.')
  }
})


module.exports = router;

App.js

var registrationRouter = require('./routes/register');
var profileRouter = require('./routes/profile');

app.use('/register', registrationRouter);
app.use('/profile', profileRouter);

module.exports = app;

Answer 1

So after hours of trying, I figured it out. My issue was I used the following code in Register.js

app.use(session({
  secret:"Edit Later.",
  resave:true,
  saveUninitialized:true
}));

app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());

This was a problem because Register.js was being used as a router, and I directed all requests to this route via App.js. This led to the app not being configured properly before the requests were handled by Register.js. The above lines are configuration code and MUST be written before app.use('/register', registrationRouter); in App.js. Thus, the fix was simply to move these lines over to App.js like so -

\\configure App

app.use(session({
  secret:"Edit Later.",
  resave:true,
  saveUninitialized:true
}));

app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());

\\handle router

app.use('/register', registrationRouter);