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CookieJar in Go (Golang)

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Overview

HTTP client in golang lets you specify a CookieJar that manages storing and sending of the cookies while making external HTTP requests. As the name suggests, think of it as a jar that contains cookies.

https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#Client

Below is the structure of the net/http Client struct. It contains an instance variable named Jar of type CookieJar which is an interface

type Client struct {
    Transport RoundTripper

    CheckRedirect func(req *Request, via []*Request) error

    Jar CookieJar

    Timeout time.Duration
}

Below is the CookieJar interface

type CookieJar interface {
    SetCookies(u *url.URL, cookies []*Cookie)
    Cookies(u *url.URL) []*Cookie
}

net/http provides a default cookie jar implementation which implements the above CookieJar interface. We will use it while initializing our net/http Client

https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/cookiejar/#Jar

You can also provide your custom cookie jar during the initialization of net/http Client struct which implements the above CookieJar interface.

HTTP client uses this jar in two ways

Let’s illustrate the cookie jar with a couple of examples. 

In the first example, the client will add a cookie while making HTTP requests. This cookie will be sent in all subsequent requests to the same domain.

In the second example, we will see that the server sends the Set-Cookie header and that cookie will be set at the client end.

First example

In this example, we will see how the client can set the cookie in the cookie jar. For that let’s first create a server Here is the program for the same

Server

The server listens to port 8080 and has two APIs

In both the APIs we are printing the cookies which it receives in the incoming header

go.mod

module sample.com/server

go 1.16

server.go

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	docHandler := http.HandlerFunc(docHandler)
	http.Handle("/doc", docHandler)

	docGetID := http.HandlerFunc(docGetID)
	http.Handle("/doc/id", docGetID)

	http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil)
}

func docHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	fmt.Println("Cookie in First API Call")
	for _, c := range r.Cookies() {
		fmt.Println(c)
	}
	fmt.Println()
	w.WriteHeader(200)
	w.Write([]byte("Doc Get Successful"))
	return
}

func docGetID(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	fmt.Println("Cookie in Second API Call")
	for _, c := range r.Cookies() {
		fmt.Println(c)
	}
	w.WriteHeader(200)
	w.Write([]byte("Doc Get ID Successful"))
	return
}

Here is the client code

Client

go.mod

module sample.com/client
go 1.16

client.go

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"net/http/cookiejar"
	"net/url"
)

var client http.Client

func init() {
	jar, err := cookiejar.New(nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error while creating cookie jar %s", err.Error())
	}

	client = http.Client{
		Jar: jar,
	}
}

func main() {
	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "http://localhost:8080/doc", nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error %s", err.Error())
	}
	cookie := &http.Cookie{
		Name:   "token",
		Value:  "some_token",
		MaxAge: 300,
	}
	urlObj, _ := url.Parse("http://localhost:8080/")
	client.Jar.SetCookies(urlObj, []*http.Cookie{cookie})
	resp, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Error occured. Error is: %s", err.Error())
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	fmt.Printf("StatusCode: %d\n", resp.StatusCode)

	req, err = http.NewRequest("GET", "http://localhost:8080/doc/id", nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error %s", err.Error())
	}

	resp, err = client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Error occured. Error is: %s", err.Error())
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	fmt.Printf("StatusCode: %d\n", resp.StatusCode)
}

In the above client program, we are creating an HTTP client with a cookie Jar

jar, err := cookiejar.New(nil)
if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error while creating cookie jar %s", err.Error())
}

client = http.Client{
		Jar: jar,
}

we are adding a cookie to the Cookie Jar

cookie := &http.Cookie{
		Name:   "token",
		Value:  "some_token",
		MaxAge: 300,
}
urlObj, _ := url.Parse("http://localhost:8080/")
client.Jar.SetCookies(urlObj, []*http.Cookie{cookie})

Now run the server

go run server.go

and client

go run client.go

Notice the output at the server end

Cookie in First API Call
token=some_token

Cookie in Second API Call
token=some_token

The same cookie is being sent automatically in both the first and second call which the client will make to the server. How does it work out of the box? This is because CookieJar comes into the picture. The golang HTTP client checks the Cookie Jar before making the HTTP call. It then sends this cookie.

Second Example

In the second example, we will see how cookie sent by the server in the Set-Cookie header is saved in the CookieJar. And then it will be sent in the subsequent calls.  To illustrate that let’s also create a server that will send the Set-Cookie header. Here is the server code

Server

We will create a server Create two APIs

go.mod

module sample.com/server

go 1.16

server.go

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	docHandler := http.HandlerFunc(docHandler)
	http.Handle("/doc", docHandler)

	docGetID := http.HandlerFunc(docGetID)
	http.Handle("/doc/id", docGetID)

	http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil)
}

func docHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	cookie := &http.Cookie{
		Name:   "id",
		Value:  "abcd",
		MaxAge: 300,
	}
	http.SetCookie(w, cookie)
	w.WriteHeader(200)
	w.Write([]byte("Doc Get Successful"))
	return
}

func docGetID(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	for _, c := range r.Cookies() {
		fmt.Println(c)
	}
	w.WriteHeader(200)
	w.Write([]byte("Doc Get ID Successful"))
	return
}

We are setting the below cookie in Set-Cookie in response headers

cookie := &http.Cookie{
	Name:   "id",
	Value:  "abcd",
	MaxAge: 300,
}
http.SetCookie(w, cookie)

Here is the client code

Client

go.mod

module sample.com/client
go 1.16

client.go

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"net/http/cookiejar"
)

var client http.Client

func init() {
	jar, err := cookiejar.New(nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error while creating cookie jar %s", err.Error())
	}

	client = http.Client{
		Jar: jar,
	}
}

func main() {
	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "http://localhost:8080/doc", nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error %s", err.Error())
	}
	resp, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Error occured. Error is: %s", err.Error())
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	fmt.Printf("StatusCode: %d\n", resp.StatusCode)

	req, err = http.NewRequest("GET", "http://localhost:8080/doc/id", nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Got error %s", err.Error())
	}

	resp, err = client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Error occured. Error is: %s", err.Error())
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	fmt.Printf("StatusCode: %d\n", resp.StatusCode)
}

At the client end, we just created an HTTP client with a CookieJar specified. Other than that we are just making two API calls.

Now run server first. It will start a local server listening on port 8080

go run server.go

Now run the client

go run client.go

Notice the output at the server end for the second API. See that it is the same cookie that was returned in the Set-Cookie response headers.

Printing the cookies in the Second API
id=abcd

This is how it works out of the box

This is all about cookie jar in golang. Hope you have liked this tutorial. Also, check out our Golang advance tutorial Series – Golang Advance Tutorial