How to use cookies in NodeJS

Handling cookies is one of the most frustrating thing to waste time on figuring out what combinations of all the settings for a cookie works . So Here is a simple solution to save a lot of time and build what is actually important rather than getting CORS by the server.

First let us install all our dependency using npm

    npm install express cors cookie-parser

Import all the libraries and initialize express

    const express = require('express')
    const cors = require('cors')
    const cookieParser = require('cookie-parser')

    const app = express()

Intialize all the middlewares

    app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }))
    app.use(express.json())

    app.use(cors({
        origin:'http://localhost:3000', // wherever your frontend is running
        credentials:true // tell the server to accepts cookies coming from client side
    }))

    app.use(cookieParser())

Create a route to send cookies from server

    app.get("/",(req,res)=>{

        res.cookie("name","Abhishek",{
            maxAge:1000*60,  // how long the cookie should stay on clients browser
            secure: 'false', // if you are using http use secure:'false' the false is in string
            sameSite:'none', // if the backend and frontend are running on different locations 
            httpOnly:'true' // if you want that the cookie cannot be access by using document.cookie on client side
        })
        res.sendStatus(200)
    })

    app.get("/cookie",(req,res)=>{
        console.log(req.cookies)
        res.sendStatus(200)
    })

start the server

    app.listen(8000, () => console.log("Server Is Online at port 8000"))

Here is the entire server.js file

const express = require('express')
const cors = require('cors')
const cookieParser = require('cookie-parser')

const app = express()

app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }))
app.use(express.json())

app.use(cors({
    origin:'http://127.0.0.1:3000',
    credentials:true
}))

app.use(cookieParser())


app.get("/",(req,res)=>{

    res.cookie("name","Abhishek",{
        maxAge:1000*60,
        secure: 'false',
        sameSite:'none',
        httpOnly:'true'
    })
    res.sendStatus(200)
})

app.get("/cookie",(req,res)=>{
    console.log(req.cookies)
    res.sendStatus(200)
})


app.listen(8000, () => console.log("Server Is Online at port 8000"))

---

Client side

Send request from the client side

use credentials:'include' while using fetch and withcredentials:true while using axios

    function getCookie(){
        fetch("http://localhost:8000",{
            credentials: 'include' // tells the browser to do both accept and send cookie 
        })
        .then(res => console.log(res.status))
    }

    function sendCookie(){
        fetch("http://localhost:8000/cookie",{
            credentials:'include'  // tells the browser to do both accept and send cookie 
        })
        .then(res => console.log(res.status))
    }