How to Set the Equivalent of fetch's { credentials: "include" } in Redux Toolkit's createApi

Discover how to properly configure RTK's `createApi` to enable session management with `credentials: "include"` in your React application.
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Setting credentials: "include" in Redux Toolkit's createApi

When developing a modern web application using React, Redux Toolkit, and an Express backend, you may encounter situations where you need to manage user sessions effectively. One common issue is ensuring that session cookies are sent along with API requests. This situation appears especially when using authentication strategies like Passport.js. In this post, we'll walk through how to set the equivalent of fetch's { credentials: "include" } using Redux Toolkit's createApi to ensure your user session is maintained correctly.

The Problem

You might be facing the following scenario:

You have an Express API set up to handle user authentication using Passport.js with the Google OAuth20 strategy.

After successful authentication, the serializeUser() function is called, but the deserializeUser() function is not invoked when your front end makes requests to the API.

This results in the req.user parameter not being set, leading to problems in accessing the authenticated user's information.

The probable cause of this issue is that the API requests do not include credentials, thus failing to send session cookies required by Passport.js to deserialize the user. Here's how to tackle this issue.

Solution: Configuring createApi with Credentials

Overview of fetchBaseQuery

The fetchBaseQuery from Redux Toolkit is a lightweight wrapper around the native fetch API. It allows you to configure common settings for making API requests from your application, such as headers, base URL, and more. To include credentials with your requests, you'll adjust fetchBaseQuery to specify credentials: "include".

Step-by-Step Setup

Update your baseQuery configuration

Modify your API slice configuration to include credentials. Here, we will incorporate the credentials option directly into the fetchBaseQuery configuration.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Alternative Query Configuration

If you prefer, you can also pass the credentials option directly in the query configuration. This method can offer more flexibility for individual requests:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Verifying Your Setup

After making these changes, ensure that your Express API is set up to handle CORS correctly, and the session middleware is configured to work with Passport.js. Here's a brief recap of your server setup:

Make sure CORS is configured to allow credentials and specify the correct origin:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Ensure that both serializeUser() and deserializeUser() have appropriate functionality and logging to debug the workflow if necessary.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you should be able to successfully include session cookies in your API requests using Redux Toolkit's createApi. With the credentials: "include" option set up, the deserializeUser() function should now be triggered correctly upon valid user sessions, allowing your application to access and utilize the user information as intended.

Incorporating proper session management is crucial for a seamless user experience, and this simple configuration can make all the difference. Happy coding!

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