Cookie problem

[_confused_]

hi! i'm rather new in PHP so i can't figure out why my cookie is not set when i run this code. pls help! thanks!

i would like the program to work this way....when the page is first loaded, detect that the cookie_time is empty, then set the cookie. when the page is refreshed, echo cookie_time.

//when page is 1st loaded, set the cookie time
if ($prevpage!="delivery.php"){
    if (!isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])) {
         setcookie("cookie_time", $ntime, time() + 3600);
    }
    $_COOKIE['cookie_time'] = $ntime;
    echo "<br>Cookie time:".$_COOKIE['cookie_time']; //this is displayed when page is loaded for the 1st time
   }

   //get cookie time if page is reloaded again
   if (isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])) {
      echo "<br>Always Cookie Time:".$_COOKIE['cookie_time'];//this is displayed when page is loaded for the 1st time but NOT when the page refreshes
}
   else {
      echo "Why not set?!!";
   }

[Rodney_H_]

Is this what you mean?? (Not sure where you are getting $ntime value... so...):

<?php
// if variable is not set, assign it a value
if(!isset($ntime)){
	$ntime = date('F j Y');
}

// is cookie set? NO:
if (!isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])) {

// create cookie
if(setcookie('cookie_time', $ntime, time() + 3600)){

	// refresh page
	echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=' . 
			$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?cookieset=true' . '">';
}

else {
	// else cookie could not be set
	echo 'cookie could not be set';
}
}

// else cookie is set
else {
	$time = $_COOKIE['cookie_time'];
	echo 'Always Cookie Time: ' . $time;

}
?>

[Tezread]

Check out hudzilla.org for newbie help on cookies/sessions

http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/read.php/10_0_0

[_confused_]

hi rodney & tezread, thanks for your replies. 🙂

rodney: i've tried the code that you gave me. my page keep refreshing which means the cookie is not set at all. why is this so? sigh...i've read tutorials and they seem to give the impression that cookies can be easily set. i had a difficult time... 🙁

sorry for not giving the $ntime....it's supposed to be $ntime=mktime(); i wanted to get the timestamp for the first time user loads the page. any subsequent reloading of the page should display the timestamp when the user first logs in.

[Rodney_H_]

OK. I probably made a mistake in my code. Sorry Can you post ALL of the code you are currently using?? This may help. Thanks.

[_confused_]

hi rodney, here are the snippets of code that i used to create the cookie. 🙂 i hope the cookie can grab the timestamp when i first loads the page. this is because i would like to insert the time & page accessed into a table to log users' activity on the site.

i assume that this delivery.php page will be refreshed many times because i have a search function that loads in the same page & also when user sorts the records by clicking on my header, the information is passed and the page is reloaded again.

 
//some parts of the code in delivery.php
   $prevpage=substr($HTTP_REFERER, 37);
   $prevpage2=explode('?',$prevpage);//to get rid parameter passed in thru URL because i pass the sorting parameter. 
   $prevpage=$prevpage2[0];
   $ntime=mktime();

 //when page is 1st loaded, set the cookie time 
if ($prevpage!="delivery.php"){ 
    if (!isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])) { 
         setcookie("cookie_time", $ntime, time() + 3600); 
    } 
    $_COOKIE['cookie_time'] = $ntime; 
    echo "<br>Cookie time:".$_COOKIE['cookie_time']; //this is displayed when page is loaded for the 1st time 
   } 

   //get cookie time if page is reloaded again 
   if (isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])) { 
      echo "<br>Always Cookie Time:".$_COOKIE['cookie_time'];//this is displayed when page is loaded for the 1st time but NOT when the page refreshes 
} 
   else { 
      echo "Why not set?!!"; //displayed everytime when i perform sorting & the page reloads again
   } 
   }

sorry for not posting all the code because the rest are just values that echo out from database or html coding. just would like to focus on setting my cookie right first before proceeding. sigh! thank you very much rodney!

[Rodney_H_]

The setcookie() function must, as you surely know by now, be called prior to ANY output to the browser at all, even before the opening <html> tags or any whitespace at all. Otherwise, it won't work. So, I would try this simple test...

<?php
// define ntime var
$ntime = mktime(); 

// if cookie is NOT set
if(!isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])){
	// create cookie
	if(setcookie('cookie_time', $ntime, time() + 3600)){
		// if cookie is set, create a flag
		$flag = 1;
	}
}
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
// if cookie is already set
if(isset($_COOKIE['cookie_time'])) {
	echo 'Cookie time value equals: ' . $_COOKIE['cookie_time'];
}

else {
	// if cookie was created on THIS page visit
	if(isset($flag) && $flag == 1){
		echo 'Cookie was just set.';
	}
	// else cookie was not set, nor was it just created
	else {
		echo 'Cookie time is NOT set.';
	}
}
?>
</body>
</html>

[_confused_]

thanks for your code rodney. i've just tried it and the output is always "Cookie was just set."

[Rodney_H_]

So, when you refresh the page, you don't get something like:

"Cookie time value equals: 1132980301" ??

[_confused_]

Nope, i don't get the timestamp. Each time i refresh the page, it will always show "Cookie was just set" :bemused:

[bpat1434]

Not sure if this helps, but here's what I did to create a cookie...

if(!isset($_COOKIE['userStyle']) || empty($_COOKIE['userStyle'])){
	if(false === setcookie('userStyle', 'dark', time()*60*60*24*30, '/', '.domain.com', 0)){
		die('Please enable cookies in your browser for "domain.com".  Thank you!!');
	}
	else{
		// Set a temporary cookie for 60 seconds that says the cookie was set
		setcookie('redirected', 'true', time()*60, '/', '.domain.com', 0);
		if(!isset($_COOKIE['redirected'])){
			// if the redirected cookie isn't set, we need to refresh
			header("Refresh: 0; ".$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
		}
		echo 'Cookie was set!!<br>Cookie is: '.$_COOKIE['userStyle'];
	}
}

The only thing I would say is to put a "print_r($_COOKIE)" in the place where it seems to get stuck. See what is being set for real...

~Brett

[_confused_]

Rodney H. wrote:

So, when you refresh the page, you don't get something like:

"Cookie time value equals: 1132980301" ??

I've tried the same code using Apache on my local pc, the code works fine. The one that is not working was at the company's external server. :queasy:

[Rodney_H_]

Have you tried Bret's suggestion and include domain and path info when setting a cookie:

setcookie('test', 'test', time()60602430, '/', '.domain.com', 0);

Try that and see if you can set a test cookie by stipulating all the arguments... and let us know if that works.

[_confused_]

Rodney H. wrote:

Have you tried Bret's suggestion and include domain and path info when setting a cookie:

setcookie('test', 'test', time()60602430, '/', '.domain.com', 0);

Try that and see if you can set a test cookie by stipulating all the arguments... and let us know if that works.

i haven't because i'm not sure what i should fill in for the last 3 parameters. what does it mean by path, domain & secure?

[Rodney_H_]

path: The path on the server in which the cookie will be available on. If set to '/', the cookie will be available within the entire domain. If set to '/foo/', the cookie will only be available within the /foo/ directory and all sub-directories such as /foo/bar/ of domain. The default value is the current directory that the cookie is being set in.

domain: The domain that the cookie is available. To make the cookie available on all subdomains of example.com then you'd set it to '.example.com'. The . is not required but makes it compatible with more browsers. Setting it to www.example.com will make the cookie only available in the www subdomain. Refer to tail matching in the spec for details.

secure: Indicates that the cookie should only be transmitted over a secure HTTPS connection. When set to TRUE, the cookie will only be set if a secure connection exists. The default is FALSE. 0 or 1

Read here: http://www.php.net/setcookie

[_confused_]

i have tried Bret's suggestion and the message displayed on screen is :

Cookie was set!!
Cookie is :

and it keeps refreshing itself over and over again.

[Rodney_H_]

check in your browser's control panel to see if there is a cookie that has been set... Is there? I am betting that one was not set, however.

Hmmmm... curious.

[_confused_]

sigh! how tiring!everything seems to be correct but the cookie just wouldn't stick. :bemused: i've been at it since last thursday...

browser's control panel? i've checked my security tab & it has been set to medium. the funny thing is that it works locally but when i dump it to server, it doesn't work at all.

[bpat1434]

Okay, so since it's setting the cookie... make sure the domain that you set for the cookie, is acutally the domain you are testing your script on. I.e. if you're using localhost, dont' set the domain to 'domain.com'....

~Brett

[_confused_]

bpat1434 wrote:

Okay, so since it's setting the cookie... make sure the domain that you set for the cookie, is acutally the domain you are testing your script on. I.e. if you're using localhost, dont' set the domain to 'domain.com'....

~Brett

i tested your code using web server & i just change '.domain.com' to '.pansar.com.my'. it keep refreshing itself...

btw, if i would like to test it locally, what should i enter for 'domain.com'? 'localhost'?

thanks!!