Axios withCredentials - Javascript

Axios is a popular Javascript library used for making HTTP requests from web applications. WithCredentials is a feature in Axios which allows users to send cookies and other authentication headers along with their requests. In this article, we will discuss how to use Axios withCredentials in your web applications.

Setting withCredentials in Axios

To use withCredentials in Axios, you can simply set the withCredentials property to true. Here is an example:

axios.get('/api/data', {
  withCredentials: true
})

With this code, Axios will send cookies along with the request to /api/data. This is particularly useful when working with APIs that require authentication.

CORS headers and withCredentials

When making cross-origin requests, the server must include the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header in its response. This header tells the browser which origins are allowed to access the resources on the server. If the server does not include this header, the browser will not allow your application to read the response.

When using withCredentials in Axios, the server must also include the Access-Control-Allow-Credentials header to allow the browser to send cookies along with the request. Here is an example of how to include this header in a PHP script:

header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://example.com');
header('Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true');

Using withCredentials with CSRF protection

If your server uses CSRF protection, you will need to include the CSRF token in your Axios requests. Here is an example of how to include the CSRF token:

axios.post('/api/data', {
  data: 'some data',
  _csrf: document.querySelector('meta[name="_csrf"]').getAttribute('content')
}, {
  withCredentials: true
})

With the above code, Axios will send the CSRF token along with the request.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to use withCredentials in Axios to send cookies and other authentication headers along with HTTP requests. We also discussed how to include the Access-Control-Allow-Credentials header in your server's response and how to use withCredentials with CSRF protection. With these techniques, you can ensure that your web application communicates securely with APIs and other web resources.