[RESOLVED] Cookie Problem

Phillio

I have a real issue with my php cookies not working.

A user logs in, the next page (login_accept) checks this info with the DB, and if authorised I set the cookie for 1 hour before the page loads (before the header etc):

setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[userid]’, $userid, time()+3600);
setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[password]’, $password, time()+3600);
setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[access]’, $access_level, time()+3600);

then, at the top of every other page before the header I call the setcookie function:

setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[userid]’);
setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[password]’);
setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[access]’);

this isn’t working properly. The first page a users calls after logging in works (the cookie is set correctly). But then once another page is selected the cookie doesn’t set?

can anyone help/offer advice?

sid

did you call [man]session_start/man at the beginning of each file within the login-area? did you set a special cookie path? by default, if you set a cookie in the directory /xxx/yyy/dir1/ the cookie won't be available at /xxx/yyy/ or /xxx/yyy/dir2/ - only in the subtree of the directory you set it at.

Phillio

i keep the cookie simple, only setting the expiry time.

and i thought session_start() was for sessions, not cookies?

Installer

Why are you calling "setcookie()" on the second page? This code

setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[userid]’);
setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[password]’);
setcookie(‘TheLoginCookie[access]’);

will unset the cookies since they don't contain an expiration time. Although they will still be available to that page, they won't be for subsequent pages.

And no, there's no need to use "session_start()".

Phillio

i thought i had to call setcookie at the beggining of every script???

i use the cookie to store the user name, id and password throughout the site so need to explode the cookie on every page in order to determine what funcions to display and the users info for querying the database.

Installer

Use "setcookie()" once. Then after that get the cookie values from the $_COOKIE superglogal array.

Installer

Also, I think that using "[" and "]" inside the cookies' names may screw things up for you. Try renaming them without those characters.

And: You should read the user note at the bottom of this page.

Phillio

thanks mate i'll give it a try later today. its drove me nuts, and the whiole logic of the site relies on it!

bradgrafelman

Also, make sure you're using normal single quotes, and not the "curly quotes" that have appeared in your posts.

Phillio

Thanks for the help guys, Installer you were right mate. Just needed to call setcookie at login.

(the brackets are ok as its an array)

its working and i'm a very very happy bloke