What Is A Cookie?: Cookie: A Small Amount of Information Sent by A Web Server To A Web Browser, Saved by The Browser, and

What is a Cookie?
Cookie: A small amount of information sent by a Web server to a Web browser, saved by the browser, and
sent back to the server later. Cookies are transmitted inside the HTTP header.
Cookies move from server to browser, and back to server as follows:
Web Web Local Web Web

Server Browser System Browser Server
Send Receive Save Send back Receive
cookies --> cookies --> cookies --> cookies --> cookies
As you can see from the diagram, cookies are actually saved to the hard disk of Web browser user's
machines. Many users are concerned about this. But I think it is pretty safe to allow your browser to save
cookies.
If you are really concerned, you can change your browser's settings to reject cookies. But this may cause
many Web based applications fail to run on your browser.
Sending and Receiving Cookies
Cookies are supported in PHP in the following ways:
1. setcookie() - A built-in function that defines a cookie to be sent along with the rest of the HTTP headers.
Like other headers, cookies must be sent before any output from your script (this is a protocol restriction).
This requires that you place calls to this function prior to any output, including <html> and <head> tags as
well as any whitespace. If output exists prior to calling this function, setcookie() will fail and return
FALSE. setcookie() can be called using the following simple syntax:
bool setcookie(string name, string value)
where "name" is the name of the cookie, and "value" is the value of the cookie.
2. $_COOKIE[] - A pre-defined associate array that stores cookies submitted by the browser.
To demontrate how to send and receive cookies, I wrote the following PHP script page, CookieTest.php:
<?php #CookieTest.php
# Copyright (c) 2005 by Dr. Herong Yang, http://www.herongyang.com/
#
$numCookies = count( array_keys($_COOKIE) );
$numCookies++;
$cookieName = "Cookie_$numCookies";
$cookieValue = "My cookie value";
setcookie($cookieName, $cookieValue);
print("<pre>\n");
print("Cookies added by the server:\n");
print(" $cookieName: $cookieValue\n");
print("\nCookies received by the server:\n");
foreach ($_COOKIE as $k => $v) {
print " $k = $v\n";
}
print "</pre>\n";
?>
I opened this page with IE, I got:
Cookies added by the server:

Cookie_1: My cookie value
Cookies received by the server:
I clicked the refresh button on the IE window, I got:


Cookie_1 = My cookie value
What happened here was that when I opened the page the first time, the server received no cookie from
the browser's request. But my page added one cookie named as "Cookie_1" to the response.
When I clicked the refresh button, the browser sent my cookie back to the server in the request. Then my
page added another cookie named as "Cookie_2" in the response.
If I keep clicking the refresh button, more and more cookies would be added to the request and response.
But there is a limit. The browser will only take up to 20 cookies from one Web server.
Output Control Functions
As you can see from setcookie() definition, the PHP engine provides no buffer for the HTTP response
body. That means as soon the PHP script starts to send output to the HTTP response body, the HTTP
header block will be finalized, and no allowed to change.
But this default behavior can be altered by calling output control functions:
setcookie() must be called before any output to the HTTP response. The main reason is that PHP is
not buffering the HTTP response. But you can alter this behavior by using ob_*() functions.
ob_start() - A built-in function that turns on output buffering.
flush() - A built-in function that flushes out the contents of the output buffer to the HTTP response
body.
Of course, default behavior can also be altered by the configuration file, php.ini. Open php.ini and set the
following line:
output_buffering = 4096
The above configuration line tells the PHP engine to turn on output buffering, and set the buffer size to
4096 bytes. Once "output_buffering" is turned on, you don't have to call ob_start() in your scripts.
To test the PHP engine default behavior, I modified CookieTest.php into CookieOutputBuffer.php:
<?php #CookieOutputBuffer.php
#
print("<pre>\n");
print("Adding cookies by the server:\n");
$numCookies = count( array_keys($_COOKIE) );

$numCookies++;
$cookieName = "Cookie_$numCookies";
$cookieValue = "My cookie value";
setcookie($cookieName, $cookieValue);

print " $k = $v\n";
}
print "</pre>\n";
?>
I then opened php.ini and set the following line:
output_buffering = 0
Running IE on CookieOutputBuffer.php gave me this:
Adding cookies by the server:


User = Herong Yang
PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already

sent by (output started at ...\CookieOutputBuffer.php:4) ...
Now I truly beblieve that PHP engine's default behavior is no output buffering. Make sure to change
"output_buffering" back to 4096 before continuing to the next test.
Persistent Cookies
There are two kinds of cookies: persistent cookies and temporary cookies.
A persistent cookie is stored in a file on your computer. It remains there when you close Internet Explorer.
The cookie can be read by the Web site that created it when you visit that site again.
A temporary or session cookie is stored only for your current browsing session. It is deleted from your
computer when you close Internet Explorer.
The default behavior of setcookie(name,value) is to set a cookie as a temporary cookie. To set a persistent
cookie, we need to add another parameter to the setcookie() function call as in the following syntax:
bool setcookie(string name, string value, int expire)
where "expire" specifies when this cookie should be expired. If the expiration time is a future time, like 30
days from today, this cookie will be set as a persistent cookie. Note that "expire" should be represented in
number of seconds since the epoch. The best way to set "expire" is use the time() function, which
represents the current time in number of seconds since the epoch. Example, 30 days from today can be
expressed as "time()+60*60*24*30".
If "expire" is not given, a temporary cookie will be created.
To show you how to set a persistent cookie, and how the cookie is store in a file, I wrote the following
PHP script page, CookiePersisted.php:
<?php #CookiePersisted.php
#
$cookieName = "User";
$cookieValue = "Herong Yang";
$expiration = time()+60*60*24*30;
setcookie($cookieName, $cookieValue, $expiration);
print("<pre>\n");
print("Cookies added by the server:\n");
print(" Expires at: $expiration\n");
print "</pre>\n";
?>
I opened this page with IE, I got:

User: Herong Yang
Expires at: 1134531525
To find out in which file this cookie is stored in my computer, I clicked at IE "Tools" menu, selected
"Internet Options...". and clicked the "Settings..." button in the "Temporary Internet files" section of the
"General" tab. I saw where is my "Temporary Internet files folder". So I went to that folder, and saw a
cookie file named something like "Cookie:user@localhost/". I double clicked on that file, and managed to
open it in notepad:
User
Herong+Yang
localhost/
1024
3801469056
29753439
3934260416
29747404
*
Actually, I saw a lots of other cookie files created by other Web sites that I have visited in the past. I
deleted all of them.
Other Cookie Properties
A cookie also has two other properties:
1. "domain" - A property that defines the domain of Web servers to which this cookie should be made
available. Web browsers will send a cookie back to a Web server when the Web server matches its defined
domain. Web browsers will never send back a cookie to a domain other than its defined domain.
For example, if a cookie's domain is www.google.com, the browser will send back this cookie to the
server only when the browser is visiting www.google.com. The browser will never send back this cookie
to www.yahoo.com.
To make a cookie available for all sub domains of a top level domain, set the domain property to the top
level domain name. For example, if a cookie's domain is set to ".google.com", this cookie will be available
to all google sub domains, like groups.google.com and gmail.google.com.
2."path" - A property that defines a Web server path to which this cookie should be made available. Web
browsers will send a cookie back to a Web server when the Web server matches its defined domain, and
the requested page matches its defined path. Web browsers will never send back a cookie to requested path
other than its defined path.
Note that the defined path also includes all its sub paths. For example, if a cookie's domain is
"www.amazon.com", and path is "/order/", then a browser will send back this cookie for requests like
"http://www.amazon.com/order/checkout.html", and "http://www.amazon.com/order/report/invoice.html".
But a browser should not send back this cookie for requests like
"http://www.amazon.com/catelog/book.html".
The setcookie() function offers two more parameters to allow you to set "domain" and "path" properties
on a cookie as in the following syntax:
bool setcookie(string name, string value, int expire, string path,
string domain)
where "path" specifies the cookie's path property, and "domain" specifies the cookie's domain property. If
"path" is not given, the cookie will have "/" as the default path. If "domain" is not given, the cookie will
have the current domain as the default domain.
Okay. Let's play the properties with the following script, CookieProperties.php:
<?php #CookieProperties.php
#
print("<pre>\n");
print("\nAdding a cookie with default properties:\n");
$cookieName = "User";
$cookieValue = "Herong Yang";
setcookie($cookieName, $cookieValue, $expiration);
print(" Name: $cookieName\n");
print(" Value: $cookieValue\n");
print(" Expiration: $expiration\n");
print("\nAdding a cookie with non-default properties:\n");

$cookieName = "Book";
$cookieValue = "Herong's Tutorial Notes on PHP";
$path = "/";
$domain = "localhost";
setcookie($cookieName, $cookieValue, $expiration, $path, $domain);
print(" Name: $cookieName\n");
print(" Value: $cookieValue\n");
print(" Expiration: $expiration\n");
print(" Path: $path\n");
print(" Domain: $domain\n");

print " $k = $v\n";
}
print "</pre>\n";
?>
Ran this script in IE, I got:
Adding a cookie with default properties:

Name: User
Value: Herong Yang
Expiration: 1134622043
Adding a cookie with non-default properties:

Name: Book
Value: Herong's Tutorial Notes on PHP
Path: /
Domain: localhost
Clicked the refresh button on IE, I got:
Adding a cookie with default properties:

Name: User
Value: Herong Yang
Adding a cookie with non-default properties:

Name: Book
Value: Herong's Tutorial Notes on PHP
Path: /
Domain: localhost

User = Herong Yang
Apparently, my script did not set the properties correctly. The browser should have sent back my second
cookie also. So either the "path=/" or "domain=localhost" did not match my local IIS environment. I could
not figure it out why.
Conclusion
setcookie() must be called before any output to the HTTP response. The main reason is that PHP is
not buffering the HTTP response. But you can alter this behavior by using ob_*() functions.
A persistent cookie is stored in a cookie file on the browser's local machine.
A persistent cookie can have a expiration time to be expressed in number of seconds since epoch.
Web browser will only send back a cookie when both domain and path match the requested
domain and path.
To make a cookie available for all sub domains of a top level domain, set the domain property to
the top level domain name.

What Is A Cookie?: Cookie: A Small Amount of Information Sent by A Web Server To A Web Browser, Saved by The Browser, and

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What Is A Cookie?: Cookie: A Small Amount of Information Sent by A Web Server To A Web Browser, Saved by The Browser, and

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Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

What is a Cookie?

Cookies move from server to browser, and back to server as follows:

Web Web Local Web Web

Sending and Receiving Cookies

Cookies are supported in PHP in the following ways:

bool setcookie(string name, string value)

I opened this page with IE, I got:

Cookies added by the server:

Cookies received by the server:

I clicked the refresh button on the IE window, I got:

Cookies added by the server:

Cookies received by the server:

Output Control Functions

$numCookies = count( array_keys($_COOKIE) );

print("\nCookies received by the server:\n");

I then opened php.ini and set the following line:

Running IE on CookieOutputBuffer.php gave me this:

Adding cookies by the server:

Cookies received by the server:

PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already

bool setcookie(string name, string value, int expire)

If "expire" is not given, a temporary cookie will be created.

I opened this page with IE, I got:

Cookies added by the server:

Other Cookie Properties

A cookie also has two other properties:

print("\nAdding a cookie with non-default properties:\n");

print("\nCookies received by the server:\n");

Ran this script in IE, I got:

Adding a cookie with default properties:

Adding a cookie with non-default properties:

Clicked the refresh button on IE, I got:

Adding a cookie with default properties:

Adding a cookie with non-default properties:

Cookies received by the server:

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