FastAPI server-side HTTP sessions management libraries

[behai-nguyen]

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Example Code

This question is not code related. I don't have a problem.

Description

Please help me with the following query.

I have only learned FastAPI during this past three weeks.

I have done a bit Flask before. With Flask, we can use the Flask-Session package to manage server-side HTTP sessions: we can write our temporary session data into a MySQL table.

I have been looking for an equivalence package in FastAPI, I have not been able to find one.

Would you be able to suggest something, please?

Thank you and best regards.

Operating System

Other

Operating System Details

This question is not related to any operating system.

FastAPI Version

0.110.2

Pydantic Version

2.7.1

Python Version

Python 3.10.1

Additional Context

This is the first FastAPI so-called web-server application which I have written.

[hasansezertasan]

There is a library called starsessions, which could be what you need.

[behai-nguyen]

Thank you @hasansezertasan,

It looks promising. I will try it out.

Thank you and best regards,

...behai.

[behai-nguyen]

Hi @hasansezertasan,

I have successfully used the starsession library in my application using Redis store. My application works exactly as programmed. I am happy. However, my integration test fails to access the Redis session store to remove the session data after the test finished. I have posted in the startsession discussion board pytest can't seem to access Redis session store.

Have you come across this before, please? If you have, would be able to point out what I have missed, please? I am reproducing the post below. Thank you.

pytest can't seem to access Redis session store

Hi,

Thank you for this library. I'm learning FastAPI and I find this library very helpful.

I have used its Redis session store without any problem in my application proper. However, my integration test using pytest does not seem to be able to "access" the Redis session store.

What have I missed please?

Content of /fastapi_learning/tests/conftest.py:

import pytest

from fastapi.testclient import TestClient

from . import test_main

@pytest.fixture(scope='module')
def app():
    return test_main.app

@pytest.fixture(scope='module')
def test_client(app):
    return TestClient(app)

Following is the /auth/logout endpoint which I am writing test for:

def __login_page_context(inc_not_login_msg=False):
    context = {"title": "FastAPI Login"}
    if inc_not_login_msg:
        context.update({"message": "This session has not been logged in before"})

    return context

@router.post("/logout", response_class=HTMLResponse)
async def logout(request: Request):
    context = __login_page_context(
        inc_not_login_msg=request.session.get("access_token")==None)
    
    request.session.clear()
    
    return templates.TemplateResponse(request=request, name="auth/login.html", context=context)

When the test gets to this endpoint, request.session is {}.

The integration test is not able to clear the session content from Redis. While the application is able to. That is, the application works as expected.

The call below has no effect during test, the corresponding Redis session does not get cleared:

    request.session.clear()

And this is my test method:

@pytest.mark.auth_integration
def test_integration_valid_login(test_client):
    """
    Test /auth/token path with a valid credential.
    """

    try:
        login_data = {
            "username": "behai_nguyen@hotmail.com",
            "password": "password"
        }
        response = test_client.post(  
            "/auth/token", 
            data=login_data,
            headers={ 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
        )

        assert response != None
        assert response.status_code == HTTPStatus.OK.value

        status = response.json()
        assert status['access_token'] == 'behai_nguyen@hotmail.com'
        assert status['token_type'] == 'bearer'

        print("\ncookie session -> ", test_client.cookies.get('session'))

    finally:
        # Logout. Clean up server sessions.
        test_client.post('/auth/logout')

test_client.cookies.get('session') does have a valid session Id, which matches
the one in Redis, for example e87901248334d8f8e8d2b3fb4175b8c4.

And test_client.post('/auth/logout') does go to the endpoint code.

Thank you and best regards,

...behai.

[behai-nguyen]

With the helps of ChatGPT, I have the solution for it:

@pytest.mark.behai_only
def test_integration_valid_login(test_client):
    """
    Test /auth/token path with a valid credential.
    """

    try:
        login_data = {
            'username': 'behai_nguyen@hotmail.com',
            'password': 'password'
        }
        response = test_client.post(  
            '/auth/token', 
            data=login_data,
            headers={'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
        )

        assert response != None
        assert response.status_code == HTTPStatus.OK.value

        status = response.json()
        assert status['access_token'] == 'behai_nguyen@hotmail.com'
        assert status['token_type'] == 'bearer'

        session_cookie = response.cookies.get('session')

    finally:
        test_client.cookies = {'session': session_cookie}
        test_client.post('/auth/logout')