In my meteor app, I need to be able to capture some form of unique element (session id/client id, etc...) to help keep track of the actions that user makes. At this point, I'm not using accounts package, so I'm just looking for a way to capture some sort of client-unique data element, which I could use in the data model to track activities/steps of every unique user. What application / browser / session element could I use in place of this unique id string?

In my meteor app, I need to be able to capture some form of unique element (session id/client id, etc...) to help keep track of the actions that user makes. At this point, I'm not using accounts package, so I'm just looking for a way to capture some sort of client-unique data element, which I could use in the data model to track activities/steps of every unique user. What application / browser / session element could I use in place of this unique id string?

• javascript
• html
• meteor

Share Improve this question Follow asked Apr 8, 2014 at 13:41 Eugene GoldbergEugene Goldberg 15.6k2323 gold badges9898 silver badges179179 bronze badges 1

• You should take a look at answers from that question – Remi Commented Apr 8, 2014 at 13:57

Add a ment  | 

3 Answers 3

Sorted by: Reset to default 6

This what you are looking for?

You can just use Random.id() to get a unique id string. I have used this a number of times to track temporary objects and it is super helpful. There are other Random methods too that may e in handy.

What you can try to use is DDP connection's session ID Meteor.connection._lastSessionId. But be careful, because it is basically websocket session. So when the client open a new tab or refresh the page, this sessionId will be different .

If you want to keep the same session in the browser you can try to implement your own localStorage based session.

Some thoughts: Instead of using Meteor's Random.id(), insert a new doc into a Mongo collection, this way you are guaranteed there will be no collisions. As there is always a tiny chance that Random.id() will return a duplicate. Is that a correct assumption?

Meteor docs say likely to be unique, i.e. Not guaranteed to be unique. http://docs.meteor./#/full/random

Store the _id of the doc in a Session.set() call, to use as your anonymous userId, i.e. Session.get("anonUserId") When done you can delete it to keep the collection trim.