[RESOLVED] Replacing cookie values??

jonzy

I've got a web form and when the user submits it I save those fields in cookies. All of that works OK, but when a user wants to type in something different into that field the next time they use the form I want to save the new value into that existing cookie.

This is my script that runs when the user submits the form:

setcookie("Bill_to", $Bill_to, time()+7776000, "/", ".domain.com");
setcookie("Bill_Address", $Bill_Address, time()+7776000, "/", ".domain.com");
setcookie("Contact", $Contact, time()+7776000, "/", ".domain.com");
setcookie("Email", $Email, time()+7776000, "/", ".domain.com");
setcookie("Contact_Phone", str_replace("-", "", $Contact_Phone), time()+7776000, "/", ".domain.com");

Any reason why the cookie values don't get replaced each time the form is submitted?

Thanks for any help you can give.
Jonzy

bogu

Why do u say the value of the cookie is not being set?

Anyway, did u read this part from the php manual?
Cookies will not become visible until the next loading of a page that the cookie should be visible for. To test if a cookie was successfully set, check for the cookie on a next loading page before the cookie expires. Expire time is set via the expire parameter. A nice way to debug the existence of cookies is by simply calling print_r($_COOKIE);.
For more details about cookie click here.

jonzy

Yeah, I read all of that, but nothing says anything about replacing the value.

When someone submits the form for the first time the cookies are stored, and all of that works fine.

My question/problem is when you go back to that page later you can see the values now, but if you change one of the values and re-submit the form, and then come back later to that form it shows the values from the first time you submitted, and does not reflect the changes you made last time.

I want the cookies to always reflect what was entered the last time the user submitted the form.

Anyone?

ragedigital

Are you using setcookie() before there is HTML output?

Setcookie() should override the previous variables that were set...

jonzy

No, if I were the original cookies would not get set. So for some odd reason the values are not being overidden once the cookie has been created. ?????

ragedigital

You have to use setcookie() before any HTML output is displayed.

From php.net:

"setcookie() defines a cookie to be sent along with the rest of the HTTP headers.

Like other headers, cookies must be sent before any output from your script (this is a protocol restriction). This requires that you place calls to this function prior to any output, including <html> and <head> tags as well as any whitespace. If output exists prior to calling this function, setcookie() will fail and return FALSE. If setcookie() successfully runs, it will return TRUE. This does not indicate whether the user accepted the cookie."

jonzy

ragedigital wrote:
You have to use setcookie() before any HTML output is displayed.

From php.net:

"setcookie() defines a cookie to be sent along with the rest of the HTTP headers.

Like other headers, cookies must be sent before any output from your script (this is a protocol restriction). This requires that you place calls to this function prior to any output, including <html> and <head> tags as well as any whitespace. If output exists prior to calling this function, setcookie() will fail and return FALSE. If setcookie() successfully runs, it will return TRUE. This does not indicate whether the user accepted the cookie."

YES, I know this. The cookies get created the first time, but the values won't change if the user types in something different the next time. Read the posts...

ragedigital

I did read the posts and you stated that you had output before the setcookie() - read your own frickin posts...

jonzy

ragedigital wrote:
I did read the posts and you stated that you had output before the setcookie() - read your own frickin posts...

Hopefully someone that actually knows what they are talking about can respond.

Salkcin

Try to remove the '/' and the domain part from the setcookie() function and see how it goes.

I also made a little testscript for you to try out, maybe you can get some ideas from it too. Just save it to an empty php document. Browse to the file and fill out the form, after you submit the information, close the browser, reopen and go back to the form, the form should now contain all the values you entered. If you fill out the form again but with other informations, the cookie vill replace the old values with the new ones.

Good luck

<?php

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {

// The ingredients...
$to = $_POST['to'];
$address = $_POST['address'];
$contact = $_POST['contact'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$phone = $_POST['phone'];

// Mix all the ingredients...
$string = "$to|$address|$contact|$email|$phone";

// bake the cookie
setcookie("my_cookie", $string, time() + 7776000);

// just to send you away to some other page after baking the cookie...
// Now, close the browser and return to this page, the form should now contain the old values
header("Location: somepage.php");
}

list($to, $address, $contact, $email, $phone) = explode('|', $_COOKIE['my_cookie']);
?>

<form method="post" action="">

Bill To:<br />
<input type="text" name="to" value="<?=$to;?>" /><br />
Address:<br />
<input type="text" name="address" value="<?=$address;?>"/><br />
Contact:<br />
<input type="text" name="contact" value="<?=$contact;?>" /><br />
e-mail:<br />
<input type="text" name="email" value="<?=$email;?>" /><br />
Phone:<br />
<input type="text" name="phone" value="<?=$phone;?>" /><br/>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Ok" />

</form>

jonzy

Salkcin wrote:
Try to remove the '/' and the domain part from the setcookie() function and see how it goes.

I also made a little testscript for you to try out, maybe you can get some ideas from it too. Just save it to an empty php document. Browse to the file and fill out the form, after you submit the information, close the browser, reopen and go back to the form, the form should now contain all the values you entered. If you fill out the form again but with other informations, the cookie vill replace the old values with the new ones.

Good luck

Thanks! Your example worked, so I removed the / and the domain and tested mine and all is working. I appreciate your help, it was driving me nuts.

ragedigital

For anyone who may read this read, please make sure you don't just copy some code from somewhere and expect it to work without applying necesary changes.

In this fine example, the "domain.com" should have been changed to the domain that the user actually owns. Other examples may include "example.com" or "yourdomain.com".

jonzy

ragedigital wrote:
In this fine example, the "domain.com" should have been changed to the domain that the user actually owns. Other examples may include "example.com" or "yourdomain.com".

That is pretty obvious...
I had the correct domain in my script from the beginning, but you'll find that when users post, they typically replace domains, mysql logins, etc, with generic information. I created the code myself based on info at php.net, and didn't just cut and paste.

Thank you though for quoting information from the php manual.