1 page view - is cookie set?

[jarboy]

Hi,

If we have a single page visit how might I find out if we have set a cookie (assuming there was no previuosly set cookie)? I was thinking iframes or something might allow it. Or a page refresh maybe.

Thanks

[TheDefender]

You might use a [man]header[/man] call and redirect back to the same page using the Location directive. It's a bit more seamless than a META refresh.

[jarboy]

Hi TheDefender and thanks for your reply.

But would I be able to set a cookie before the "Location" header?

Thanks

[TheDefender]

Yep, because you aren't actually outputting anything to the browser...

Example:

<?php
if(isset($_COOKIE['testing'])) {
	echo $_COOKIE['testing'];
} else {
	$test = "test";
	setcookie("testing",@$test,time()+365*1440*60);
	header("Location: test.php");
}
?>

Basically, if the cookie is set, we echo the value of the cookie. If it isn't, then we set it, and redirect back to the page (which again verifies its existence.)

You may want to build in an exit mechanism so you don't get caught in an endless loop if someone has their browser set to block cookies, but this should give you an idea of how/where to begin.

[jarboy]

Thanks TheDefender - great response - just what I wanted to hear 🙂