Cookie Basics

[thethinman]

Hi - I'm hoping someone can fill me in on some basics about cookies?

I've got a PHP & MySQL-based site running on RedHat. We gather user stats with WebTrends Reporting Center v6.0 and the client wants me to set a cookie to identify New, Returning and Unknown visitors.

Problem is... I have limited control/access to the server and the WebTrends cookie requires me to uninstall & re-install the server. I don't want to go there...

WebTrends suggested I try implementing Apache's mod_usertrack function to set the cookie, but I think I lack some key knowledge... Anyone out there that can run through some cookie-setting basics like:

1. What does a complete line of cookie code look like?

2. Are they easy to create & set?

3. Is there canned code I can get somewhere?

4. How do mod_usertrack and the cookie interact?

5. Once I create the cookie is it easy or hard to register it within WebTrends and my access log script?

Any help is greatly appreciated. 🙂

Thanks,
Ben

[zingbats]

Have a read of http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/20/0.php