Authentication serves as a protective barrier for software applications, verifying the identity of users and granting access to protected resources. However, requiring users to authenticate repeatedly, especially within a single session, can lead to frustration, impede productivity, and ruin their overall experience.
To overcome this challenge, you may utilize cookies and session storage to persist user authentication data and other personalized information—allowing users to remain authenticated throughout a session without the need for constant reauthentication, consequently, improving their experience.
Managing User Session Data Using Cookies and Session Storage
User session management is a crucial aspect of building robust and secure React applications. Properly managing session data using cookies and session storage ensures a smooth and personalized user experience while maintaining the necessary security measures.
User session data typically includes information that is specific to a user’s current session or interaction with an application. This data can vary depending on the requirements and functionality of the application but commonly includes the following:
Cookies are text files that contain small pieces of datastored by web browsers on the user’s device. They are commonly used to store authentication data and any other personalized user information, allowing web applications to maintain user sessions across multiple browser sessions.
On the other hand,session storage—similar to local storage—is a client-side storage mechanism provided by modern browsers. Unlike cookies, it’s limited to a specific browsing session and accessible only within the same tab or window. Session storage offers a simple and straightforward way to store session-specific data for web applications.
Both cookies and session storage play crucial roles in managing user session data. Cookies are great in situations where data persistence across multiple sessions is required. In contrast, session storage is advantageous when you want to isolate data within a single browsing session, providing a lightweight and specific storage option.
Now, let’s explore how to handle user session data, specifically focusing on storing authentication information using cookies and session storage.
Set Up a React Project
To get started,set up a React project using Vite. Next, install these packages in your project.
Ideally, after a user logs in and their credentials are successfully authenticated by a backend authentication API, cookies and session storage store authentication tokens, session identifiers, or any other relevant data during the user’s session.
These tokens or identifiers along with the additional data stored in the user’s browser are automatically included in subsequent requests made to the server for verification before a user can access protected resources.
This way, a user’s session persists across multiple requests—ensuring they seamlessly interact with the application without needing to re-authenticate for every request.
You can find this project’s code in thisGitHub repository.
Managing User Authentication Session Data Using Cookies
To demonstrate how to use cookies to store users' authentication information, go ahead, and create a newcomponents/Login.jsxfile in thesrcdirectory. Inside this file, add the following code.
Since we don’t have a backend API to authenticate user credentials, we’ll create a function that verifies the data entered by the user in the login form using test user credentials. Inside the functional component, add the following code.
Inside theauthenticateUserfunction, it checks if the provided username and password match the test authentication data. If the credentials match, it creates auserDataobject with the username and password. It then sets an expiration time for the cookie and stores theuserDatain a cookie namedauthusing theCookies.setmethod.
After successful authentication, a user redirects to a protected page since they are authorized to access protected resources. By storing the authentication information in a cookie, you establish an active user session, allowing subsequent requests to include the authentication details automatically.
This user session data allows the server code to verify the user’s identity and authorize access to privileges without requiring the user to reauthenticate for each request.
Update the App.jsx File
Make changes to theApp.jsxfile to handle user routing after successful authentication
The code above sets up the necessary components and the routing logic. It includes a logout button that, when pressed, deletes the authentication cookie and redirects the user to the login page.
Additionally, it verifies the presence of the authentication cookie and redirects users to the login page if it is absent. However, if the cookie is present, theProtectedPagecomponent renders a page that is exclusively accessible to authenticated users.
Finally, run the command below to spin up the development server to test the application.
On your browser, navigate tohttp://127.0.0.1:5173/login,and enter the test authentication credentials. After successfully logging in, a new cookie is generated containing the session data, which includes the test authentication information.
Once the cookie expires or when you click the logout button, the cookie gets deleted. This action effectively ends the active user session and logs you out.
Storing User Authentication Data Using Session Storage
Both session storage and cookies function similarly. To store the necessary information in the browser’s session storage, you can utilize thesessionStorage.setItemmethod.
By adding the statement above inside theauthenticateUserfunction in theLogincomponent, you’re able to store the authentication data of the user in the browser’s session storage.
Exploring Additional Use Cases for Cookies and Session Storage
This guide highlighted how to use cookies and session storage to store users' authentication credentials. Nonetheless, cookies and session storage offer a wider range of capabilities beyond storing authentication information.
By leveraging these features, you can manage additional session data, leading to a more secure and personalized user experience.
