[RESOLVED] cookies problem

[VisionsOfCody]

Hi

as far as i can see, this bit of code isn't setting the cookie - can anyone see why ?

if(!isset($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["agendaPass"])){
if(isset($POST['agendaPass'])){
if($POST['agendaPass'] == $value){
setcookie("agendaPass", $value);
$agendaPass = "ok";
}else{
$agendaPass = "printLoginFormError";
}
}else{
$agendaPass = "printLoginForm";
}
}else{
if($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["agendaPass"] != $value){
$agendaPass = "printLoginFormChange";
}else{
$agendaPass = "ok";
}
}

thanks

[ClarkF1]

Is the setcookie the first piece of information returned to the browser???

It won't work if you've already echoed something etc.

[VisionsOfCody]

yes - here's the complete code

<? $value = "JB007";
if(!isset($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["agendaPass"])){
	if(isset($_POST['agendaPass'])){
		if($_POST['agendaPass'] == $value){
			setcookie("agendaPass", $value);
			$agendaPass = "ok";		
		}else{
			$agendaPass = "printLoginFormError";
		}		
	}else{
		$agendaPass = "printLoginForm";	
	}
}else{
	if($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["agendaPass"] != $value){
		$agendaPass = "printLoginFormChange";
	}else{
		$agendaPass = "ok";
	}	
}

[ClarkF1]

Have you checked each stage of the script.

It's useful to use var_dump($_POST); etc. to check the contents of the arrays.

It may be that for some reason, the cookie is already set or $_POST['agendaPass'] is of a different value etc.

[VisionsOfCody]

ClarkF1 wrote:

Have you checked each stage of the script.

yes - i pick up the value of $agendaPass later in the script and it definitely contains the right value and allows access to the page

the problem is that when i close the browser and come back to the page I'm asked to login again

so, using the Firefox developer toolbar I checked to see if the cookie had been set and it tells me that no cookie has been set

also i checked in other browsers so it's not the browsers security settings ....

in theory it has to be a problem with my setcookie() but I checked in the PHP manual and i couldn't find anything - but i did change the setcookie to

setcookie("agendaPass", $value, false, '/', false, 0);

apparently there are problems using this with localhost so i uploaded it to the distant server and still no luck ...

[VisionsOfCody]

hang on hang on

I'm stupid

i thought that not setting the expiry date would mean that the cookie was permanent - BUT NO !!

so i set the expiry date and it works fine

thanks for your help anyway

[ClarkF1]

If you don't specify a time, it automatically defaults to a session cookie and will therefore get deleted if the browser is closed.

If you set the third value of the setcookie function (the one after the value) to a timestamp it will remain set until that date.

You could use

$expire = time()+606024*30;

setcookie("agendaPass", $value, $expire, '/', false, 0);

This would set the cookie for 30 days before it gets deleted.

To delete the cookie when someone logs out you just reset the cookie but with a time in the past

e.g.
$expire = time()-60*60;

setcookie("agendaPass", $value, $expire, '/', false, 0);

The last two attributes which are set above as false and 0 can be left out.

The false is actually the field for 'domain' where you can specify which sub-domains if any the cookie should be stored from. For all you can use e.g. .phpbuilder.com
Setting it to www.phpbuilder.com would prevent being used in a subdomain such as forums.phpbuilder.com

The last attribute is whether it requires a secure connection ([url]https://)[/url] so that can be left out unless needed. It defaults to 0