[Resolved] setcookie help

iceman2g

I'm lost when it comes to cookies. What I wanna do is set a cookie after the submit button has been clicked. I've tryed but haven't been having any success. So for that reason i've been using session_register but as you know opening page in new browser window gets past that.

Here's what i've been using to register session.

$poll = 'poll';
session_register("poll");

Now i'd like to replace this with setcookie. So that poll results are visible if the cookie is present.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

webnewone

To set a session var for poll use this instead:

$_SESSION['poll'] = $poll;

To print the var to the browser/your page just use:

echo $_SESSION['poll'];

Don't forget to add session_start(); to the top of EVERY page where you'll be using sessions

Hope that helps some

😃

iceman2g

I don't think you understand what i'm trying to do. Sorry i'm not good a explaining myself. What I wanna do is set a cookie so once the submit button for this poll has been clicked you can't vote again even if you open a new browser window. Registering the session does that as when you open a new browser window there's a new session.

I'm trying to use setcookie so that users can't vote even after opening a new browser window.

yelvington

I think what iceman is trying to do is to stop repeated voting in polls.

Setting a cookie is easy. Just make sure you do it BEFORE any other output.

$expire = time 365246060; // 1 yr

setcookie('poll', 1, $expire);

if($_COOKIE['poll'] == 1)
echo "sorry, you already voted";
else
// do your poll
;

The $_COOKIE superglobal will be populated only if the value was sent with the page request.

iceman2g

Ok here's what I did.
$expire = time 365246060; // 1 yr

setcookie('poll', 1, $expire);

if($_COOKIE['poll'] != 1)
{
have poll options display

}

if($_COOKIE['poll'] == 1)
{
have poll results display
}

Now i'm guessing I didn't do it correctly as your able to vote once you open a new browser window.

tsinka

Hi,

try this code to see if the cookies are set:

ini_set("error_reporting",E_ALL); // to show any errors
if (!isset($_COOKIE['poll'])){
  $expire = time() * 365*24*60*60; // 1 yr 
  setcookie('poll', 1, $expire); 
  // show poll options
} else{
  print_r($_COOKIE); // print cookie data
  // show poll results
}

Make sure that setcookie is used prior to any output like echo or empty lines in front of <?PHP or something like that.

Thomas

iceman2g

Ok first of I cleared all my cookies, and after about an hour of test and retesting i've come to the conclusion that it's a hit or miss when it comes the the cookie be sent. At times it's set other times, i get an error saying "Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by". Other times it's not set and I get no errors so i'm therefor able to vote as many times as i'd like.

Here's the code i'm using

if (!isset($_COOKIE['xpcshq_poll'])){ 
$expire = time() * 365*24*60*60; // 1 yr 
setcookie('xpcshq_poll', 1, $expire); 
//poll options
}
else{
//poll results
}

iceman2g

If it helps here's two pictures of both files that set cookies upon visiting the site.

polls.php is the one i'm having the issues with. Though occasionally if i'm parked on site for too long it automatically logs me out and upon trying to log back in it get errors referring to header information already being sent for polls.php and shoppingcart.php.

tsinka

Post more code, the "cannot send headers" message appears because there is some output prior to the setcookie call.

Thomas

iceman2g

Originally posted by tsinka
Post more code, the "cannot send headers" message appears because there is some output prior to the setcookie call.

Thomas

Forgive my igonrance where is there output before the setcookie call?

tsinka

Hi,

don't know since I don't know the code. But do you have any empty lines in front of e.g. <?PHP (or <?) ? Just anything that might be sent to the browser before you execute setcookie would cause that error message.

Even something like that

<?PHP
//some code
?>

<?PHP
// some code
setcookie(...);
?>

would cause that error because you have an empty line between the two PHP blocks.

One of the all time favourites:

<?PHP
include "somescript.php";
setcookie(...);
?>

would cause that error if the included file contains any empty lines outside PHP blocks.

Thomas

iceman2g

I see, thought empty lines would only contistue a line between.

<?
//info

setcookie()

Currently both files are setup like this.

<?php
/****************************************************
*                           MOD INFO
*
**************************************************************************
*
*        File info  : polls.php
*        Purpose    : vote in active polls
*
*        Author     : iceman2g 
*                     www . x-tremepcshq.com
*
*                     

*                     www . x-tremepcshq.com
*
*        Last update: 07/31/2004
*    

*
**************************************************************************/
if (!isset($_COOKIE['xpcshq_poll'])){ 
$expire = time() * 365*24*60*60; // 1 yr 
setcookie('xpcshq_poll', 1, $expire);

tsinka

Please post both files as a zip file attached to your post.

Thomas

iceman2g

Here ya go.

tsinka

Hi,

do you include polls.php or is polls.php requested directly ?
Do you see any other error messages when you get that "headers already sent" messages ?

Thomas

iceman2g

That's the only errors I get. I include polls.php in my subheader.inc.

tsinka

Please post subheader.inc

Thomas

iceman2g

Here ya go.

tsinka

I think the echo line at the beginning is the problem.
Try the attached version. I added a ob_start() to enable output buffering.

But a better solution might be to have a function in polls that creates the html code and return ist. Then use that function to print the table after setcookie has been executed.

In short: Any echo or e.g. header(..) call prior to the setcookie call will cause header errors.

Thomas

iceman2g

Originally posted by tsinka
I think the echo line at the beginning is the problem.
Try the attached version. I added a ob_start() to enable output buffering.

But a better solution might be to have a function in polls that creates the html code and return ist. Then use that function to print the table after setcookie has been executed.

In short: Any echo or e.g. header(..) call prior to the setcookie call will cause header errors.

Thomas

😕 What attached version?

As for rewriting the code i'll look into that. This is the first thing I worked on since I started learning php. Since this i've done a few other things.

What might the coding of this reworked code look like?