Automating Cookie Inclusion in Axios Requests

When making requests from a client to a server using Axios, it's often necessary to send cookies embedded within those requests. Without manually adding them, you may encounter difficulties accessing these cookies in your server code, as demonstrated by the example provided where req.headers and req.cookies remained empty despite using the cookieParser middleware in Express.js.

To resolve this issue, Axios offers the withCredentials property. Enabling this property ensures that credentials, including cookies, are automatically included in all requests made by Axios. This behavior mimics the default behavior of the XMLHttpRequest object, allowing cookies to be securely transmitted across different domains.

Here are three ways to configure withCredentials:

1. Enable it for all Axios requests:

axios.defaults.withCredentials = true;

2. Enable it for specific requests:

axios.get(BASE_URL   '/todos', { withCredentials: true });

3. Create an Axios instance with withCredentials enabled:

const instance = axios.create({
   withCredentials: true,
   baseURL: BASE_URL
});
instance.get('/todos');

By setting withCredentials to true, Axios will automatically include cookies in all requests, eliminating the need for manual intervention and ensuring seamless authentication and tracking across requests.