Browser accepts cookie but PHP can't retrieve it.

aksival

Ok, here's the situation:

A cookie is being set at the top of the page (before any HTML content is generated). The browser accepts the cookie (for example, Firefox -> Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Cookies -> View Cookies -> [Cookie is present with correct value]), however, on subsequent page loads the cookie cannot be accessed. This is ONLY a problem on my remote web host (dreamhost). On my local system, however, the same exact code works fine - the cookie is being saved for 30 days.

My webhost insists that nothing should be conflicting with the $COOKIE variable, which is how I am attempting to access the cookie. print_r($COOKIE) returns blank values for that element.

Here are the specs:
Remote host PHP Version 5
Local host PHP version 5 (they are configured as closely as possible to one-another)

Tried everything...nothing logical seems to explain it, so I thought I'd ask the forum. Any thoughts?

Best,
aksival

phpshift

Are you setting the cookie from the same page that you are retrieving it with? If not, did you set the cookie to only be readable by that page? I can't think of anything else that would cause this. Try calling the cookie by its exact name.

etully

Are you setting the cookie on one domain but trying to retrieve it on another? For example, if you set the cookie on domain.com but link to other pages under www.domain.com, then the cookies won't be available by default. Can you post a test URL? For example, page 1 sets a cookie and then link to page 2 that does a print_r($_COOKIE);

aksival

If not, did you set the cookie to only be readable by that page?

I'm not sure this is possible...if so, it's something I've never heard of. Please explain...

Are you setting the cookie on one domain but trying to retrieve it on another? For example, if you set the cookie on domain.com but link to other pages under www.domain.com, then the cookies won't be available by default.

The cookie is set on one page and retrieved on any subsequent pages the user visits after their session expires (the cookie value holds the name of a custom stylesheet).

For example:
1. The user selects a custom theme (the cookie is set as well as a session
variable).
2. The user leaves the website and comes back (the cookie is retrieved once and stored in a session variable).

The file that handles the setting and retrieving is included at the top of every page:

session.php

<?php
	// Start/continue session
	session_start();
	header("Cache-control: private"); //IE 6 Fix

// Change theme if told to do so
if( isset($_GET['style']) ) {
	$_SESSION['screen-style'] = $_GET['style'];
	// Remember for next visit
	setcookie('screen-style', $_GET['style'], time()+60*60*24*30);
}

// Try to retrieve style from cookie, if not currently stored in $_SESSION
if( !isset($_SESSION['screen-style']) && isset($_COOKIE['screen-style']) ) $_SESSION['screen-style'] = $_COOKIE['screen-style'];

// No style specified, use default
if( empty($_SESSION['screen-style']) ) $_SESSION['screen-style'] = "screen.css";

?>

I just thought of something...could it be because I am trying to retrieve the cookie and store it in $_SESSION from within an included file?

Not sure offhand if that will make a difference. I'll test it out tomorrow...

aksival