Sessions in Express aren't working

Question

I'm trying to use the sessions in Express. I've read the docs as carefully as I could but couldn't find any differences between my code and the examples - still, sessions doesn't seem to initialize.

Here's the start of my app.js

var express = require('express')
  , routes = require('./routes')
  , customRoutes = require('./routes/custom.js');

var app = module.exports = express.createServer();

// Configuration

app.configure(function(){
  app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
  app.set('view engine', 'jade');
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));

  app.use(express.cookieParser());  
  app.use(express.session({ secret: "keyboard cat" }));

});

app.configure('development', function(){
  app.use(express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true })); 
});

app.configure('production', function(){
  app.use(express.errorHandler()); 
});

// Routes

app.get('/', function(req, res){

    req.session.something = "please?";
    req.session.boo = true;
    req.session.int = 100;

    console.log(req.session); // undefined
});

And when I run it: TypeError: Cannot set property 'something' of undefined.

What's to check?

$ npm ls

ââ⬠cradle@0.5.7
â âââ vargs@0.1.0
â ââ⬠vows@0.5.13
â   âââ eyes@0.1.6
ââ⬠express@2.5.0
â âââ connect@1.7.2
â âââ mime@1.2.4
â âââ mkdirp@0.0.7
â âââ qs@0.3.2
âââ node-static@0.5.9

Answer 1

You didn't specify any Session store, check the example from here: https://github.com/alessioalex/Nodetuts/blob/master/express_samples/app.js#L15-31

For example specify the memory store (this is ok only for development):

var MemStore = express.session.MemoryStore;
...
app.use(express.session({secret: 'secret_key', store: MemStore({
  reapInterval: 60000 * 10
})}));