when should I use cookie-parser with express-session?
For future humble coders, that will stumble upon this - I'm posting an up-to-date answer:
As the official description of express-session middleware says here: express-session
Since version 1.5.0, the
cookie-parsermiddleware no longer needs to be used for this module to work. This module now directly reads and writes cookies on req/res. Usingcookie-parsermay result in issues if the secret is not the same between this module andcookie-parser.
Therefore, just use express-session middleware and have a nice day.
In addition to providing simple cookie parsing functionality, the cookie-parser middleware enables signed cookies which can be referenced by other middleware components, using an optional secret attribute.
Why would you want signed cookies? This question addresses that well