128

My app uses the Firebase API for User Authentication, saving the Login status as a boolean value in a Vuex State.

When the user logs in I set the login status and conditionally display the Login/Logout button accordingly.

But when the​ page is refreshed, the state of the vue app is lost and reset to default

This causes a problem as even when the user is logged in and the page is refreshed the login status is set back to false and the login button is displayed instead of logout button even though the user stays logged in....

What shall I do to prevent this behavior

Shall I use cookies Or any other better solution is available...

    -
James Westgate
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boomboxboy
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    I use any kind of local storage to handle that. That can be Cookies or something else – Hammerbot Mar 26 '17 at 10:22
  • @El_Matella apart of cookies what else method do you use to store data locally – boomboxboy Mar 26 '17 at 10:26
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    In general, I use a local storage npm package that can choose the best method to store data for me: https://www.npmjs.com/package/local-storage "The API is a simplified way to interact with all things localStorage. Note that when localStorage is unsupported in the current browser, a fallback to an in-memory store is used transparently." – Hammerbot Mar 26 '17 at 10:35
  • @El_Matella thank you very much... I will have a look – boomboxboy Mar 26 '17 at 10:36

6 Answers6

125

This is a known use case. There are different solutions.

For example, one can use vuex-persistedstate. This is a plugin for vuex to handle and store state between page refreshes.

Sample code:

import { Store } from 'vuex'
import createPersistedState from 'vuex-persistedstate'
import * as Cookies from 'js-cookie'

const store = new Store({
  // ...
  plugins: [
    createPersistedState({
      getState: (key) => Cookies.getJSON(key),
      setState: (key, state) => Cookies.set(key, state, { expires: 3, secure: true })
    })
  ]
})

What we do here is simple:

  1. you need to install js-cookie
  2. on getState we try to load saved state from Cookies
  3. on setState we save our state to Cookies

Docs and installation instructions: https://www.npmjs.com/package/vuex-persistedstate

sobolevn
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  • Thank you... Was just having look at the plugin's github page... Thank you once again – boomboxboy Mar 26 '17 at 10:38
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    Do you need to do anything specific to set / get the data ? On reload my data is reset to default. Just setting via this.$store.state.user, tried objects and simple strings - no luck. – DogCoffee May 06 '17 at 11:26
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    Because cookies are transmitted between client and server I would probably look at local storage instead ... – James Westgate Aug 09 '18 at 08:54
  • how do I save the state of aws-amplify ? as it is to big to fit in cookies and localstorage won't work on safari private mode – hounded Sep 09 '18 at 08:04
  • @hounded I am also facing the same issue, found any solution for this? – Adil Aug 05 '19 at 10:41
  • switched out to this methodology https://dev.to/dabit3/how-to-build-production-ready-vue-authentication-23mk – hounded Aug 11 '19 at 00:37
83

When creating your VueX state, save it to session storage using the vuex-persistedstate plugin. In this way, the information will be lost when the browser is closed. Avoid use of cookies as these values will travel between client and server.

import Vue from 'vue'
import Vuex from 'vuex'
import createPersistedState from 'vuex-persistedstate'

Vue.use(Vuex);

export default new Vuex.Store({
    plugins: [createPersistedState({
        storage: window.sessionStorage,
    })],
    state: {
        //....
    }
});

Use sessionStorage.clear(); when user logs out manually.

James Westgate
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    I'm surprised that the cookies solution gets so many stars. I think this solution is much better as it automatically clears all state when the browser window is closed. I don't like sending my state data as cookies to the server, and I also don't want to persist sensitive data when the browser window closes. – Mark Hagers Feb 11 '20 at 10:02
  • You are also limited to 8k in total with your headers including cookies. – James Westgate Feb 19 '20 at 13:39
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    @MarkHagers and it is natively supported since IE8! No need to load extra code. – Fabian von Ellerts Feb 21 '20 at 10:34
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    I was getting an error `vuex-persistedstate.es.js?0e44:1 Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON` – Akin Hwan Jun 20 '20 at 15:12
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    @Akin - The error suggests you have a circular reference in your state, an object references another object which eventually references back to the first object. – James Westgate Jun 21 '20 at 18:51
  • Using Typescript I have an error on refresh : vuex-persistedstate.es.js?0e44:1 Uncaught TypeError: r.propertyIsEnumerable is not a function – Dan M. CISSOKHO Dec 17 '20 at 13:11
15

Vuex state is kept in memory. Page load will purge this current state. This is why the state does not persist on reload.

But the vuex-persistedstate plugin solves this issue

npm install --save vuex-persistedstate

Now import this into the store.

import Vue from 'vue'
import Vuex from 'vuex'
import account from './modules/account'
import createPersistedState from "vuex-persistedstate";

Vue.use(Vuex);

const store = new Vuex.Store({
  modules: {
    account,
  },
  plugins: [createPersistedState()]
});

It worked perfectly with a single line of code: plugins: [createPersistedState()]

Rijo
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10

I think use cookies/localStorage to save login status might cause some error in some situation.
Firebase already record login information at localStorage for us include expirationTime and refreshToken.
Therefore I will use Vue created hook and Firebase api to check login status.
If token was expired, the api will refresh token for us.
So we can make sure the login status display in our app is equal to Firebase.

new Vue({
    el: '#app',
    created() {
        firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged((user) => {
            if (user) {
                log('User is logined');
                // update data or vuex state
            } else {
                log('User is not logged in.');
            }
        });
    },
});
Andrew - oahehc
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9

put on state:

producer: JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('producer') || "{}")

put on mutations:

localStorage.setItem("producer",JSON.stringify(state.producer)) // OR
localStorage.removeItem("producers");

works fine for me!

Leonardo Filipe
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3

I've solved this by resetting my headers every time I re-load also fetch user data, I don't know what is better ...

new Vue({
    el: 'vue',
    render: h => h(VueBox),
    router,
    store,

    computed: {
        tokenJWT () {
            return this.$store.getters.tokenCheck
        },
    },


    created() {
        this.setAuth()

    },

    methods:
        Object.assign({}, mapActions(['setUser']), {

            setAuth(){
                if (this.tokenJWT) {
                    if (this.tokenJWT === 'expired') {
                        this.$store.dispatch('destroyAuth')
                        this.$store.dispatch('openModal')
                        this.$store.dispatch('setElModal', 'form-login')

                    } else {
                        window.axios.defaults.headers.common = {
                            'Accept': 'application/json',
                            'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + this.tokenJWT
                        }
                        axios.get( api.domain + api.authApi )
                            .then(res => {
                                if (res.status == 200) {
                                    this.setUser( res.data.user )
                                }
                            })
                            .catch( errors => {
                                console.log(errors)
                                this.destroyAuth()
                            })
                    }
                }
            }
        })

})
Alenn G'Kar
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