socket-io.client send the cookies!

gistfile1.js

/*
 *  Little example of how to use ```socket-io.client``` and ```request``` from node.js
 *  to authenticate thru http, and send the cookies during the socket.io handshake.
 */

var io = require('socket.io-client');
var request = require('request');

/*
 * This is the jar (like a cookie container) we will use always
 */
var j = request.jar();

/*
 *  First I will patch the xmlhttprequest library that socket.io-client uses
 *  internally to simulate XMLHttpRequest in the browser world.
 */
var originalRequest = require('xmlhttprequest').XMLHttpRequest;

require('xmlhttprequest').XMLHttpRequest = function(){
  originalRequest.apply(this, arguments);
  this.setDisableHeaderCheck(true);
  var stdOpen = this.open;

  /*
   * I will patch now open in order to set my cookie from the jar request.
   */
  this.open = function() {
    stdOpen.apply(this, arguments);
    var header = j.get({ url: 'http://localhost:9000' })
      .map(function (c) {
        return c.name + "=" + c.value;
      }).join("; ");
    this.setRequestHeader('cookie', header);
  };
};


/*
 * Authenticate first, doing a post to some url 
 * with the credentials for instance
 */
request.post({
  jar: j,
  url: 'http://localhost:9000/login',
  form: {username: 'jose', password: 'Pa123'}
}, function (err, resp, body){

  /*
   * now we can connect.. and socket.io will send the cookies!
   */
  var socket = io.connect('http://localhost:9000');
  socket.on('connect', function(){
    console.log('connected! handshakedddddddddddd')
    done();
  }));

});

Thank you so much for your work on Passport-SocketIO!

I had to change line 20 to use the xmlhttprequest bundled with socket.io-client.
Line 20: require('socket.io-client/node_modules/xmlhttprequest').XMLHttpRequest = . . .

FYI. This no longer works with the latest version of xmlhttprequest. The code fails at line 22, because this.setDisableHeaderCheck is undefined.

And because you can't disable the header check, you can't set the cookie as the cookie header is a header you're not supposed to tamper with; xmlhttprequest prevents you from doing so.

Thanks a lot for this. I ran into the same issue as @RunnerRick. The fix/hack I used was as follows:

$ npm install xmlhttprequest --save-dev

var orig = require('xmlhttprequest');

require('$root/node_modules/socket.io-client/node_modules/xmlhttprequest').XMLHttpRequest = function () {
  orig.apply(this, arguments);

  // etc.
};

i.e. effectively override the xmlhttprequest version used by socket.io-client (1.4.2 for 0.9.16) with the latest (1.6.0 at time of writing).

In addition I needed to specify force new connection as true in each of my tests else I was seeing timeouts, e.g.

it('should do something', function (done) {
    var sock = io.connect('xxx', { 'force new connection': true });
    // ...
    done();
});

it('should do something else', function (done) {
    var sock = io.connect('xxx', { 'force new connection': true });
    // ...
    done();
});

I'm getting errors. Can you post your version of the code?

        var header = j.get({ url: 'http://localhost:9000' })
                       ^
TypeError: Object #<CookieJar> has no method 'get'

@codecowboy which version of request are you using?

TypeError: Object # has no method 'get'

I'm getting this error with request v 2.33.0
How can I fix this?

You've probably figured it out by now, but here's the answer in case anyone else (such as myself) stumbles across this thread:

replace:

var header = j.get({ url: 'http://localhost:9000' })
      .map(function (c) {
        return c.name + "=" + c.value;
      }).join("; ");

with:

var header = j.getCookieString('http://localhost:9000');

to reflect changes in the underlying cookie stores

I've made this works for socket.io-client ~0.9.

Is there a way to make it work for ~1.2 release?
Does it already?

Some more hackery will be required for socket.io 1.0 as it does require('xmlhttprequest') directly, rather than require('xmlhttprequest').XMLHttpRequest, making it even more difficult to override.

I was having the same issue and was able to get cookies working with 1.2.1 by creating a file containing the following:

// XMLHttpRequest to override.
var xhrPath = 'socket.io-client/node_modules/engine.io-client/node_modules/xmlhttprequest';

// Make initial call to require so module is cached.
require(xhrPath);

var name = require.resolve(xhrPath);
// Get cached version.
var cachedXhr = require.cache[name];
var stdXhr = cachedXhr.exports;

// Callbacks exposes an object that callback functions can be added to.
var callbacks = {};
// Example
callbacks.test = function() {
  console.log("In callback.");
}

var newXhr = function() {
  stdXhr.apply(this, arguments);
  for (method in callbacks) {
    if (typeof callbacks[method] == "function") {
      callbacks[method].apply(this, arguments);
    }
  }
}

newXhr.XMLHttpRequest = newXhr;

cachedXhr.exports = newXhr;
module.exports = newXhr;
module.exports.callbacks = callbacks;

Requiring that and adding methods to callbacks ends up with a similar result to the original post, at least while the cached version of XMLHttpRequest persists. The require statement for the above file should be made before socket.io-client is required. An example, which adds the cookie to the request:

var myXhr = require('./xmlhttprequest');
var io = require('socket.io-client');

/*
  ... 
  code which ends up with cookie value in myCookie
  ...
*/

myXhr.callbacks.test2 = function() {
  this.setDisableHeaderCheck(true);
  var stdOpen = this.open;
  this.open = function() {
    stdOpen.apply(this, arguments);
    this.setRequestHeader('cookie', myCookie);
  }
}
// Assuming uri was defined somewhere above.
var socket = io.connect(uri);

It would also be possible, in the first file, to call stdXhr.XMLHttpRequest instead of stdXhr, in which case I believe the original solution (along with the few edits mentioned in the comments here) would work.

Thank you chrahunt this is what I was looking for 😄

Complete example

For anyone that look for a complete example here is:

First create a file: client-code.js

process.env.NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED = "0";
var request = require('request');
var cookies = request.jar();
var myXhr = require('./newXhr');

console.log('');

console.log('Request https://yourdomain.com/');
request.get(
    {
        url: 'https://yourdomain.com/',
        jar: cookies
    },
    function (err, res, body) {
        if (err) {
            console.log('Error: ', err);
            process.exit(0);
        }
        console.log('Status code: ', res.statusCode);
        console.log('');
        console.log('Headers: ', res.headers);
        console.log('');
        console.log('Cookies: ', cookies);
        console.log('');

        request.post(
            {
                url: 'https://yourdomain.com/login',
                jar: cookies,
                form: {
                    nick: 'secret_user',
                    password: 'yourpassword'
                }
            },
            function (err, res, body) {
                console.log('');
                if (err) {
                    console.log('Error: ', err);
                    process.exit(0);
                }
                console.log('Status code: ', res.statusCode);
                console.log('');
                console.log('Headers: ', res.headers);
                console.log('');
                console.log('Cookies: ', cookies);
                console.log('');


                myXhr.callbacks.test2 = function () {
                    this.setDisableHeaderCheck(true);
                    var stdOpen = this.open;
                    this.open = function () {
                        stdOpen.apply(this, arguments);
                        this.setRequestHeader('Cookie', res.headers['set-cookie'][0].split(';')[0]);
                    }
                }

                var io = require("socket.io-client")("https://yourdomain.com/audience", {forceNew: true});

                io.on('connect', function () {
                    console.log("Eureka !!!");
                });

                //process.exit(0);
            });
    }
);

Now create new file called:newXhr.js thank you @chrahunt

// XMLHttpRequest to override.
var xhrPath = 'socket.io-client/node_modules/engine.io-client/node_modules/xmlhttprequest';

// Make initial call to require so module is cached.
require(xhrPath);

var name = require.resolve(xhrPath);
// Get cached version.
var cachedXhr = require.cache[name];
var stdXhr = cachedXhr.exports;

// Callbacks exposes an object that callback functions can be added to.
var callbacks = {};
// Example
callbacks.test = function () {
    console.log("In callback.");
}

var newXhr = function () {
    stdXhr.apply(this, arguments);
    for (method in callbacks) {
        if (typeof callbacks[method] == "function") {
            callbacks[method].apply(this, arguments);
        }
    }
}

newXhr.XMLHttpRequest = newXhr;

cachedXhr.exports = newXhr;
module.exports = newXhr;
module.exports.callbacks = callbacks;

The dependencies package.json

{
    "name": "client-code",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "",
    "main": "client-code.js",
    "scripts": {
        "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "request": "^2.55.0",
        "socket.io-client": "^1.1.0",
        "xmlhttprequest": "^1.5.0"
    }
}

In Windows
Now run this in the promt:
set DEBUG=* & node client-code.js

Unix base
Now run this in the shell/terminal:
DEBUG=* node client-code.js

Tested with socket.io v1.1.0

Cheers!

I fixed the cookie issue in socket-io-client 1.3.6 by overriding the http.ClientRequest constructor.

var ClientRequestOrig = require('http').ClientRequest;

// Override the ClientRequest constructor to set your cookie.
http.ClientRequest = function(options, cb) {

  // Set your cookie
  options.headers.Cookie = 'mycookie=mycookievalue';

  return new ClientRequestOrig(options, cb);

};

This solution does not work when you have multiple socket.io clients in the same node instance. If the clients auth as different users, overriding the cookie in the common xmlhttprequest makes all the clients appear to be the same