Using variables

Anon

I would like to know how to use a variable in setcookie(),i.e. the variable is $var and I want to store it in a cookie for retrevial later. For example:
//beginning page
<a href="form.php3?1234.zip"></a>

//then on form page
$var=$QUERY_STRING
setcookie("TestCookie", $var);

Later I need to retreve the variable value and put in a URL or something for downloading the file. For example:

$var=$TestCookie

header("location: $var");

Thanks in advance for any help.

rulian

you need a time stamp on the cookie, it goes by seconds so an hour would be setcookie ("testcookie", $var, 3600);

or if you need a lot of time you could just go ("testcookie", $var, time()+time());
any combination will do, hoep this helps

Anon

Rulian,

I am doing that. I just didn't bother to show that part of the code. However, my problem is that the setcookie("TestCookie", $var) isn't working. It seems that I'm not using the right syntax for $var or something because the cookie is empty. I can do this;
setcookie("TestCookie", "1234.zip") and I can get the 1234.zip back but when I use just the $var I get nothing back. Thanks.

rulian

You know, now that I think about it, i actually had the same problem. I dontk onw why, but I found the solution that I could not have the cookie and var named the same for example:

$var="blah";
setcookie ("var", $var, time());

that would not work

but if I did this

if (!isset($var2)) {$var="blah";
setcookie ("var2", $var, time());}

on reload, or something.
if (isset($var2)) = $var=$var2;

that could be it, but another thing I just though of, are you echoing testcookie or var, or are you setting something equal to testcookie, just asking

Anon

Hello,

Also, you can only call a cookie variable from the same directory that it was set. Example:

You have your directory structure like this:

+-htdocs
|
+--support
|
+--sales

If you set the cookie on a page within support, you can only read that cookie from the support dir. It will be empty from all the other pages. I have an example, but my server is down, and i cant get to the example. Look at the setcookie function on php.net.

Bill

Anon

Thanks again Rulian,

No I'm not using the same cookie name as the variable. I'm just trying to use the variable as the cookie value. I will try you're solution and let you know.

Anon

Thanks Bill,

I'll take a look at the manual again. However, if I put a value in (setcookie("TestCookie", "1234.zip") it works just fine. If I assign the value to a variable ($var="1234.zip") and try to use the variable as the cookie value it doesn't seem to work.