cookies

Anon

Hi,

I have a question regarding the number of cookies allowed on a server.

I've tried to use array to get around the restriction of 20 cookies per server.

I use $cart[1], $cart[2], $cart[3]... to set up cookies. This is an array and is suppose to count as one cookie.

However, this doesn't work. The Client side would only take $cart[0] to $cart[20]. $cart[21] will then replace the original $cart[0].

Any help is appreciated,

The following is the code I wrote:

for ($i=0; $i<$cart[total]; $i++) {

$selecteditemno = "item number $i <br>";

// Set Item Number
setcookie("cart[$i]", $selecteditemno, "", "/", ".mydomain.com");
$total_items++;
// Set Total Items
setcookie("cart[total]", "$total_items", "", "/", ".mydomain.com");
}

lawnmowerman

If you're using cookies, why not use sessions to store the array on the server.

Sessions store their session ID within a cookie. This means 1 cookie, but the session can hold many, MANY variables of any type.

Hope this helps!

-Rich

Anon

Thank you for your help, Rich.

But I'd still like to know what is wrong with the code I wrote. I've just read the Cookies section of the book "Professional PHP Programming" and it clearly stated that we can store multiple values in a single cookie by using arrays and the book even mentioned that this is a way to get around the restriction of 20 cookies per server.

Anyone Know?

lawnmowerman

I do not have that book and have therefore cannot comment on exactly what was meant.

This being said, perhaps they were meaning you could store many items in an array (name or numerically indexed) and store a single cookie with the array.

<?php

$cookie = array( 'firstname' => 'Rich', 'lastname' => 'Alloway', 'email' => 'ralloway@hhs.net', 'totalitems' => 1, 'item1' => 'phpbuilder.com source code' );

$cookie = serialize( $cookie );

setcookie( 'cart', $cookie, '', '/', '.mydomain.com' );

Then, when you want to retrieve the data in the next page:

<?php

$cart = unserialize( $cart );

print $cart[email] . "\n";
print $cart[totalitems] . "\n";

Hope this helps or at least sheds some light on some possibilities. Oh, and keep in mind that cookies have a maximum size of 4kilobytes each.

-Rich

Anon

Hi, Rich,

I've tried your code and all I got from the second page is blank. nothing in the browser's source code either.

If I take off $cookie = serialize( $cookie );
on the first page and $cart = unserialize( $cart ); on the second page, I would get "A A" on my browser where one "A" on the first line and another "A" on the second line.

I also found something interesting;

if I create a page with the follwoing code:
<?
$cart[0] = "0";
$cart[1] = "1";
$cart[2] = "2";
$cart[3] = "3";
$cart[4] = "4";

setcookie('cart', $cart, '', '/', '.mydomain.com');
?>

and the second page with this code:

<?
print "
$cart[0] $cart[1] $cart[2] $cart[3] $cart[4]";
?>

I first run the first page, then the second page. One the second page the browser displayed "A R R A Y".

It seems that the values of the $cart array has been changed to

$cart[0] = "A";
$cart[1] = "R";
$cart[2] = "R";
$cart[3] = "A";
$cart[4] = "Y";

This is really weird, It seems that cookies won't take arrays.

Thanks for your help, Rich.

Anybody know the answer?

lawnmowerman

I apologize....that code was from memory....

Try this...this one works 🙂

page1.php4

<?php
$cart[0] = 0;
$cart[1] = 1;
$cart[2] = 2;
$cart[3] = 3;
$cart[4] = 4;
$cart[5] = 5;
$cart[6] = 6;
$cart[7] = 7;

$cart = serialize( $cart );
setcookie( 'cart', $cart, '', '/', '.mydomain.com' );
?>

page2.php4

</pre>

I understand that this isn't the most beautiful code...but
it is functional 🙂

Does this help a little more? 🙂

-Rich

Anon

Hi, Rich,

Your code works fine. Thank you so much.

However, after I modified the code to

first page (test.php3)

<?php

for ($i=0; $i<30; $i++) {
$cart[$i] = $i;
}
$cart = serialize( $cart );
setcookie( 'cart', $cart, '', '/', '.afcostumejewelry.com' );
?>

second page (test2.php3)

after running the first page then second page. the browser displayed

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

It seems that the code treats $cart[1] and $cart[10] the same. $cart[20] and $cart[2] also has the same value.

Thank you,

lawnmowerman

I'm not sure why that is shrug

Sorry 🙁

I don't deal with cookies much. I mainly deal with forms and sessions (which only store the session ID in a cookie)

-Rich

Anon

Hi, Rich,

Thank you very much for all your help. I really appreciated.

I'm sure it's not the cookie that's causing the problem. the same thing happens if I run the following code.

<?php
for ($i=0; $i<30; $i++) {
$cart[$i] = $i;
}
for ($i=0; $i<30; $i++) {
print "cart $i = $cart[$i]";
}
$cart = serialize( $cart );
setcookie( 'cart', $cart, '', '/', '.afcostumejewelry.com' );
?>
$cart[1] and $cart[11] have the same value "1". It seems the array in PHP doesn't work like that. Instead of using number one should use alphabet to construct array. Such as $cart[1] should be $cart[whateveralphbets].

Anyways, Thank you for taking time to answer my questions. I'll try to answer some of the questions in this forum in the future.

Great forum.

Thanks,

lawnmowerman

Sorry....I can't see where the problem lies...

The serialized version is only 287 bytes long...WAY below the 4kb cookie limit.

Good luck!

-Rich

Anon

HI, Rich,

I still can't find an answer to the question, but I really appreciate your help.

Thanks,

alangb

Hi Chaps try this - its all in the syntax(!)

page1.php----------------------------
<?php
/write values to array in cookie...
the time value isn't important - six months in this case!
*/

setcookie('laa[username]', "alan gb",time()+5184000);
setcookie('laa[rememberme]', "0",time()+5184000);
setcookie('laa[user_type]', "lazy",time()+5184000);

?>
<BODY>
<a href="page2.php">next page</a>

</BODY>

page2.php--------------------------------

<?php
//read and print values from array in cookie
print $laa["username"]."<br>";
print $laa["rememberme"]."<br>";
print $laa["user_type"]."<br>";

Hope that helps!!!!!!!!!