[Resolved] Checking if Cookies are enabled in the browser

tomandhannah

What's the best way to check if someone's browser will accept a cookie or not? I've seen somewhere before (and am unable to find it now that I need it) that you should set a cookie, reload the page, and then try to read the cookie. If you can't read the cookie, then they either have cookies disabled or their browser doesn't support it. However, all I have is:

if (!@$_COOKIE['test']) {
setcookie("test", time(), time()+3600);
header("Location: ".$PHP_SELF);
}

if (!@$_COOKIE['test']) {
$cookieerror = "<span class=\"body\"><b>Please Note:</b> It appears that your browser is not accepting cookies. In order to take full advantage of this site, you need to enable cookies in your browser's preferences.</span><br><br>";
echo $cookieerror;
}

This is no good b/c if the browser won't accept the cookie, then the user is sent into a never-ending loop. Not to mention that they'd never make it to the 2nd if statement. What should I do?

mrhappiness

if (!isset($_GET['testcookie']) and !isset($_COOKIE['test']))
{
  setcookie("test", time(), time()+3600);
  header('location: '.$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].'?testcookie=1');
}

if (isset($_COOKIE['test']))
  echo 'Alright';
else
  echo 'No nookies';

Weedpacket

Note of course, that you can't test for the cookie's existence on the same run of the same script as the one that sets the cookie; the attempt to set the cookie has to be made first or the browser won't have a chance to know that you want to set a cookie, and then you have to hope that the browser sends the cookie back in its next request.

tomandhannah

That's a good way to do it. BTW- what is the advantage to using isset()? If the cookie always has a value, isn't it the same to simply use:
if ($_COOKIE['cookie'])

Weedpacket

Originally posted by tomandhannah
That's a good way to do it. BTW- what is the advantage to using isset()? If the cookie always has a value, isn't it the same to simply use:
if ($COOKIE['cookie'])

Well, no; because if the browser doesn't support cookies, then $COOKIE['cookie'] won't be set....

tomandhannah

Right, and if $_COOKIE['cookie'] isn't set, then it will still return the same results, right?

For example:

if (!$_COOKIE['firstvisit'] && !$_GET['cookie']) {
setcookie("firstvisit", time(), time()+3600);
header("Location: ".$PHP_SELF."?cookie=1");
exit;
}

if (!$_COOKIE['firstvisit'] && $_GET['cookie']) {
$cookieerror = "You aren't accepting cookies, or your browser doesn't support them.";
}

Is functionally the same as:

if (!isset($_COOKIE['firstvisit']) && !isset($_GET['cookie'])) {
setcookie("firstvisit", time(), time()+3600);
header("Location: ".$PHP_SELF."?cookie=1");
exit;
}

if (!isset($_COOKIE['firstvisit']) && isset($_GET['cookie'])) {
$cookieerror = "You aren't accepting cookies, or your browser doesn't support them.";
}

After all, if the browser isn't accepting or doesn't support cookies, then if (!$COOKIE['cookie']) would return the same that if (!isset($COOKIE['cookie'])) would. Right? I really am asking. It seems the same to me.

bubblenut

But you'll get a warning saying you're trying to use an uninitialized variable, or array out of bounds or somthing like that. PHP is very forgiving but try doing this in a stricter language and it'll get messy.