Cookies do not seem to work

**Husain** · Oct 31, 2001 04:05

I have made a page that sets a cookie that will be read by another page to determine what image should be displayed.

On the page that sets to cookie, the following code is used to set a cookie.

PHP Code:


if ($TotalPages == $Page) {

  $CookieExpires = time() + 3600;

  $CookieName = "TopicID" . $TopicID;

  setcookie("$CookieName", "true", $CookieExpires);

  echo("setcookie(\"$CookieName\", \"true\", $CookieExpires);");

  echo("<br>");

  echo("The value of the cookie TopicID1 is " . $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TopicID1"]);

}

The output of the above code is:

setcookie("TopicID1", "true", 1004510708);
The value of the cookie TopicID1 is true

On the page that reads the cookie I have this code:

PHP Code:


echo($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TopicID1"]);

However this page gives me an error:

Warning: Undefined index: TopicID1 in D:\MC PHP\temp.php on line 2

What am I doing wrong?

**johnn** · Oct 31, 2001 04:13

TopicID1 or TopicID? Check it.

**Husain** · Oct 31, 2001 04:29

It is TopicID1.

PHP Code:


$CookieName = "TopicID" . $TopicID;

The value of $TopicID is 1 (one), so the cookie is called TopicID1.

Also, on the page where the cookie is actually set, it is read correctly and the correct information (which is "true") is displayed. It is only on the other page trying to display the cookie where it gives me an error.

**johnn** · Oct 31, 2001 05:01

I ran your codes. It gave me true and no errors. Something is wrong in your second page. Post some codes above and below the "echo http..." line on the second page. In second page echo both lines below and tell me the output:
echo "topic is". $TopicID1;
echo ($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TopicID1"]);

----
wow, you're off line

**Husain** · Nov 1, 2001 02:25

I ran your code and I got errors in that too.

echo "topic is ". $TopicID1;
gave me an undefined variable error

echo($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TopicID1"]);
gave me an undefined index error.

I think the $TopicID1 does not work because I edited the php.ini file and turned off the register_globals
(that's all I changed in the INI file)

**johnn** · Nov 1, 2001 03:09

Is it OK now?

**Husain** · Nov 1, 2001 03:11

Nope! As I said, both the lines of code you asked me try out gave me errors.

**johnn** · Nov 1, 2001 03:16

As you wrote, maybe you can turn on register global, and try again. If that doesn't work, you can post your code and I may see something wrong with it.

**Husain** · Nov 1, 2001 08:41

I will post the code, then.

But one thing I do not understand (I am a beginner - so please pardon my ignorance) is HTTP_*_VARS should work regardless of the settings of register_globals.

Plus, when I read a variable from the URL using HTTP_GET_VARS, it works! I will try it with forms and see if it works.

But then, if GET_VARS works, I wonder why COOKIES_VARS doesnt...

**Husain** · Nov 3, 2001 02:17

I have zipped the code and uploaded it here.

Hope this is convinent for you..

**johnn** · Nov 3, 2001 03:50

Hussain,
I created 2 small scripts: a.php and b.php

a.php is:

PHP Code:


<?



  $CookieExpires = time() + 3600;

  

  $CookieName = "TopicID" . '1';

  setcookie("$CookieName", "true", $CookieExpires);

  echo("setcookie(\"$CookieName\", \"true\", $CookieExpires);");

  echo("<br>");

  echo("The value of the cookie TopicID1 is " . $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TopicID1"]);

?>

<a href="b.php">bbb</a>

and b.php (or your temp.php) is

PHP Code:


<html>

<head>

<title>Testing</title>

</head>

<body><table border="1" width="100%">

<tr>

    <td>

<?

$TopicID = 1;

$CookieName = "TopicID" . $TopicID;

echo($TopicID1);

echo($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["$CookieName"]);

echo("<br>Hope this works!");

?>



    </td>

    <td>&nbsp;</td>

</tr>

<tr>

    <td>&nbsp;</td>

    <td>&nbsp;</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

<?

//echo "dd". $TopicID1;

//echo ($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TopicID1"]);

?>

and here's the output:
setcookie("TopicID1", "true", 1004780755);
The value of the cookie TopicID1 is true bbb

Click on bbb link and it gives this:
truetrue
Hope this works!

Try the above scripts and see if you have the same result.

**Husain** · Nov 3, 2001 12:58

This is interesting... the code you asked me to try out works.

However, the echo($TopicID1); statement does not work because I have disabled the global vars setting. I enabled the setting from the INI file and it worked too.

So now, coming back to my original code, I went through it again and compared my code with yours: I can not find my mistake. Can you tell me what my mistake is? Thanks

**johnn** · Nov 3, 2001 13:38

Hello,
I suggest you put echoes before you exit the first script and see what is missing or changing, remove codes in question and gradually add them until you get errors. That way you will improve your debugging skill.

**Husain** · Nov 3, 2001 13:52

Thanks a lot for the tip. I will try it and get back to you.

**Husain** · Nov 4, 2001 12:44

I did just as you had adviced to debug my code. There was nothing wrong with my code because it ran without errors.

However, the errors were occurring because the two files were stored in different locations. The file that set the cookie was located in

localhost/new/forums/showthread.php

and the file that read the cookie was located at

localhost/new/temp.php

When I moved temp.php to the forums directory, the code worked and the cookie was read perfectly.

So now the question is: how do I store cookies so that they can be retrieved from pages stored in any location?

**johnn** · Nov 4, 2001 15:31

In php.ini there is a directive named "include_path"
Try to include both paths to it. It probably works I think.

User Tag List

Thread: Cookies do not seem to work

Thread Tools

Display

Cookies do not seem to work

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions