Cookie Reading

[Defender1]

i know i can do

setcookie("name", "value", time() + 15768000, "", "www.yourdomain.com"); 

to set a cookie to last one year, but how would i read from that cookie and use it's info in a web page?
And would that info be usable over many different pages?

[DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR]

you're asking how to read the cookies? and yes, they're available on any pages that have access to that cookie (if that made sense ). in your example, that cookie would be available on any page at www.yourdomain.com. if you set the path to '/folder/', then it's only available from /folder/ and its subdirectories.

to read the cookie in your example you can use $name or the preferred way, with $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['name']. it's all explained on the setcookie() page of the PHP manual.

[Renegade]

a variable would be created in PHP in the name of the cookie.

$name would exist in your example, its value would be

$name=value

You could also make it an array, like this:

setcookie("name[field1]", "value1", time() + 15768000, "", "www.yourdomain.com");

setcookie("name[field2]", "value2", time() + 15768000, "", "www.yourdomain.com"); 

so, we have:
$name[field1] = value1
and
$name[field2] = value2

clear as mud?

[Defender1]

So if i put $name or $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS[name] in a script that hadn't set the cookie it'll read from $name as if it'd been made in the script?

[TWTCommish]

Yes, exactly. If the data is sensitive in some way (IE: a userid or username, etc)...I highly recommend adding a line like this at the top of your script:

$var = $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["var"]; 

If you don't, someone could basically specify a value for "var" in the querystring and potentially access someone else's data.

[Defender1]

what does that do though?

[TWTCommish]

Like I said, it prevents people from specifying the variable value through the querystring...it ensures that the value of $var (in that example) is indeed a value from a cookie, a whole cookie, and nothing but a cookie.

[Defender1]

Originally posted by TWTCommish
a cookie, a whole cookie, and nothing but a cookie.

... so help me Keebler Elves?

ok i see now.
thx.