Maximum length of cookie text

[DanWalter]

Hello:
In my app, cookies are used to transfer large blocks of text (user comments) from one page to another. I am running across a problem trying to find the smallest maximum number of characters allowed:
a) in a sql db field
b) in an html variable
c) in a cookie.

I'm finding that the size of the cookie is the limiting step. Does a size of approximately 700 characters sound right? On my development server, I can get away with 720 characters, but on the production server I had to reduce that to 700. The html field value is stored in a cookie on page a, where it is input, and is passed back to page b. If the length is > 700, no value is stored in the cookie.

Any ideas?
TIA,
Dan

Dan Walter
Daniel.Walter@uvm.edu
try { succeed(); } catch(E) { tryAgain(); } finally { rtfm(); }

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

It will probably change from browser to browser, so if you find that 700 works for yu in all your target browsers, I'd run with it.

Hope this helps,
Dan



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[Wullie]

I think the size used to be about 2K-4K for a cookie, but it might have changed especially in different browsers.

What I don't understand though is why you are needing to pass this information in a cookie? Personally I would use sessions to pass the data between pages.

Hope this helps

Wullie

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[DanWalter]

Thanks, folks. I thought it may have been browser or IIS setup specific.

I will look into sessions as an alternative - the web is always changing and no doubt we will be updating the site sooner rather than later.

Dan

Dan Walter
Daniel.Walter@uvm.edu
try { succeed(); } catch(E) { tryAgain(); } finally { rtfm(); }