CGI and cookies

[c4n]

Hi,

A question about CGi and cookies:

How do I set a cookies with CGI (Let's say that it has value = "mycookies" and expires after 6 months) and then if the user returns read from it (if found do this, else do that).

Thanks in advance!

 

[cmitzel]

You're best bet for anything CGI is the CGI object. You create one in perl with the following code:

use CGI;
$cgi = new CGI;

Then you can create a cookie with this code:

# create a cookie
$cookie = $cgi->cookie(-name=>'sessionID',
                       -value=>'xyzzy',
                       -expires=>'+1h',
                       -path=>'/cgi-bin/database',
                       -domain=>'.capricorn.org',
                       -secure=>1);
# tell the browser to set the cookie
print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookie);

To get the value back, create a CGI object as shown above and use the following:

$sessionID = $cgi->cookie('sessionID');

For more information on the CGI object check out

http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/lib/CGI.html

Hope this helps!
Chris

 

[c4n]

Can't get the script to create a cookie Here's what I tried:
------------------------------------


#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use CGI;
$cgi = new CGI;

$cookie = $cgi->cookie(-name=>'test',
-value=>'testvalue',
-expires=>'+1h');
print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookie);
&message;


sub message {
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print &quot;<h1>COOKIE SET</h1>\n&quot;;
exit;
}

----------------------------------

The script just doesn't set the cookie. Any idea why?

Thanks

 

[c4n]

oh, withat tht &quot;-w&quot;, just &quot;#!/usr/bin/perl&quot;

 

[cmitzel]

Here's what you're script is outputting:

[tt]Set-Cookie: test=testvalue; path=/; expires=Sun, 24-Mar-2002 20:54:30 GMT
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 19:54:30 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

Content-type: text/html

<h1>COOKIE SET</h1>[/tt]

What you're getting is two &quot;Content-type&quot; lines which could be you're problem. The header routine prints one of these lines so there is no need to print your own. Try removing that line.

Chris

 

[c4n]

Hi!

Sorry to bother you again, but I just can't get it to work

Is it possible that the &quot;set Cookie&quot; header works only with Netscape (I use IE)?

Here's the codes I used but don't work (any new ideas?):

---------------------------
**************
To set the cookie:
**************

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
$cgi = new CGI;

$cookie = $cgi->cookie(-name=>'test',
-value=>'testvalue',
-expires=>'+1h');
print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookie);
&message;


sub message {
print &quot;<h1>COOKIE SET</h1>\n&quot;;
exit;
}

------------------
***********
TO get the value back:
***********

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
$cgi = new CGI;

$cookievalue = $cgi->cookie('test');

&message;


sub message {
print &quot;<h1>COOKIE SET TO VALUE: $cookievalue</h1>\n&quot;;
exit;
}

---------------------

Thanks in advance!

 

[cmitzel]

The only problem I ran into when running your scripts is the fact that you do need to print a header when you retrieve the cookie. IE is capable of handling cookies (that's what I'm using) so that isn't your problem. Try putting the line:

print $cgi->header;

before your call to

message()

.

If that still does not work, then you'll need to look into the

-domain

parameter when you're creating the cookie.

Chris

 

[Haunter]

I have had problems with cookies along the same type. The solution was that the domain parameter had to be specified. Depending on the type of server software begining used this can be a requirement to get the cookie to be retrievable. Try setting the domain parameter as mentioned above.

 

[tsdragon]

Technically, unless you specify a domain the cookie should only be retrievable by the page which set it. If you set the domain the just your domain name, without a page or directory, it should be retrievable by any page on your domain. Tracy Dryden
tracy@bydisn.com

http://www.bydisn.com

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[c4n]

Thanks, will try this later and see what I get!

 

[c4n]

Hmmmm, seems like retrieving a cookie isn't the issue - the script doesn't even set one! I configured my brovser (IE5.5) to prompt when receiving a cookie and nothing happens when I execute the &quot;Cookie setup&quot; script.

 

[Haunter]

Try this. To set the cookie
######################
#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
$cgi = new CGI;

$cookie = $cgi->cookie(-name=>'test',
-value=>'testvalue',
-expires=>'+1h',
-domain=>'.yourdomain.com',
-path=>'/');
print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookie); #<-fordebugging
print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookie);
&message;


sub message {
print &quot;<h1>COOKIE SET</h1>\n&quot;;
exit;
}

################
Different script to get cookie
##############
#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
$cgi = new CGI;

$cookie1 = $cgi->cookie(-name=>'test');
print $cgi->header();
print &quot;This is the cookie I picked up -- $cookie1 --&quot;;