setcookie path

searain

I always have problems with setcookie path.

say if i run this setcookie in a page, setcookietest.php in this folder department_1

http://www.mydomain.com/departments/department_1/setcookie.php
setcookietest.php

<?php
setcookie("testcookie", "hello world", 0);
?>

i want this cookie to be available by all the pages of its upper folder departments

how should i set up the path parameter value.

Thanks!

searain

correction, the folder structure in previous sample should be:

www.mydomain.com/departments/department_1/setcookie.php

mahers

setcookie("testcookie", "hello world", 0, "/", ".mydomain.com");

searain

Is the domain parameter necessary here? or can I leave it out?

mahers

It's optional, I guess if you still have problems you could always try setting the domain.

searain

It works now. Domain is optional.

My question is that when I set up the path of the cookie. Do I AWAYS have to use "/departments/" etc. like begin from root and walk down.

If I use "../" begin from the sub folder and walk up back to its parent folder for the path parameter, it won't work. Right? and Why?

mahers

Good question, however its a bit over my head. Maybe some pro's can enlighten us?

If you do set a directory as the path then all subdirectories of the path should be able to access the cookie if thats what you mean?
So if you want all pages in the /departments directory to have access to the cookie, then yes each cookie will have the "/departments/" as the path.

xblue

not sure if it helps, but this is how I understand it:

you don't need to set the path. if you don't set the path, the cookie information is available in the directory where the script that set the cookie resides, and in all subdirectories of this, but not in the parent directory.

if you want to make it available to all files in the domain no matter where it was set, use "/" as path.

if on the other hand you want to restrict access to the cookie to a certain subdirectory, I think you need to give the full path from the web root, starting with a leading /.

acidbox

Just as a footnote to this thread. If you find that your cookie is pre-maturely expiring, and people are randomly being logged out or whatever. Put the domain back in the cookie. I have had trouble with this before, and that was what solved it.