Cookies

Anon

I have a user login script that I have written. This script uses a database to compare the infomation the user has entered into the username and password fields. If the supplied username and password correspond to the ones in our database then the user is "logged in". This should set two cookies:

/Set cookies/
setcookie("Username", '$HTTP_POST_VARS[username]', time()+3200);

setcookie("Password", '$HTTP_POST_VARS[password]', time()+3200);

All seems to go well, but when the user id redirected via a meta refresh to the index page, the supplied cookies cannot be printed. Here is the code that "should" print out the cookies set by the login script:

Print $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["Password"];

print $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["Username"];

Any ideas why the cookies won't print out? Just for refrence i am using windows XP pro, PHP 4.1.0, and MySQL 3.23.47.

Anon

This is likely to be a series of coding problems having nothing to do with Windows.

If no cookie is being set, then you may not be processing that part of your script. Examine your code flow, especially conditionals.

The code you posted would set two cookies, but they would NOT contain the values you seek. You have single-quoted the arguments to setcookie(), which protects the string from being expanded with variable substitutions.

If you forget to include METHOD="POST" in your HTML form, you will get nothing, because the default would be a GET.

Anon

The single quotes have nothing to do with it. I can do a Print $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS[Password]; and Print $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS[Username]; in the login script and the proper values of the cookies will be displayed. It is only when i go to the indes page that i cannot print out the cookies. BTW this also meants that the cookies are being set.

Anon

Why do you think the cookies are being set? What do you think is in them? Did you check by asking your Web browser to report the cookie setting attempt? (Netscape 6 is very good for this; you can look at all the cookies that have been set for any domain.)

Try this, which reflects how you are passing the arguments to setcookie:

print '$HTTP_POST_VARS[password]';

It will print the literal string:
$HTTP_POST_VARS[password]

... and not the value of the password variable.

What you should be setting as a cookie is

setcookie("Password", $HTTP_POST_VARS['password'], time()+3200);

Anon

I use IE6. I made the setting so that it will prompt me before accepting any cookies. When i run the script it asks me if i want to accept the two cookies, and i accept. But i still cannot print out the value of the cookies in any of my other scripts. If i use the set cookie format you gave me (setcookie("Password", $HTTP_POST_VARS['password'], time()+3200)😉 the value of the cookie would turn out to be: $HTTP_POST_VARS['password']. With the sigle quotes arounf the whole var. i get the proper value into the cookie. Also using print '$HTTP_POST_VARS[password]'; prints '$HTTP_POST_VARS[password]'.

Anon

Chris wrote:

If i use the set cookie format you gave me (setcookie("Password", $HTTP_POST_VARS['password'], time()+3200)😉 the value of the cookie would turn out to be: $HTTP_POST_VARS['password'].

No. It would be the value of the password variable. Please read the manual section covering the parsing of single-quoted and double-quoted strings.

The following code is correct and works properly.

cook1.php:
<?
if ($HTTP_POST_VARS['submit']) {
setcookie("Username", $HTTP_POST_VARS['username'], time()+3200);
setcookie("Password", $HTTP_POST_VARS['password'], time()+3200);
header('Location: cook2.php');
}
?>
<form method=POST>
<input type='text' name='username'>
<input type='text' name='password'>
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='submit'>
</form>

cook2.php:
<?
print $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['Username'];
print $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['Password'];
?>

Anon

The cookies still will not print out in the "cook2.php" file.

Anon

Are you running Apache or IIS?

Anon

Apache. I'm going to try switching over to sessions. That way i can just use session_regiser(); to register an array in which i can store the users information (Username, password ect.). I thank you for you patience and your help, i appreciate it.

Anon

Have u checked if it works if you

a) Upload it
b) Set IE's privacy setting to 'Accept all'. I've had this problem with IE - it seems it still blocks cookies from people it dosent recognise even if you accept them!

Chris wrote:

Anon

Never store a password in cookie!

Anon

I think I have a clue of what the problem might be. The cookie is being accepted (I took a quick glance of all the posts so sorry if I forgot something). You said you have PHP 4.1.0? I have that as well. The semi almost up to date version of PHP. When I installed mine the setting for the global variables was it? was turned off. So you\'re going to have to print it out using the secure arrays they added in PHP 4.1.0 I had trouble with my scripts when I first started using the 4.1.0 version. I was wondering why the variables and such weren\'t being passes.

print($_COOKIE[password]);

Try that and see if that works out for ya.

Anon

I'm an expert with ASP, but I need to learn how to do some simply php to write a cookie, and read a cookie. BUT I'm having the same problem!!!

It will not print the cookie, I've tried 30 different ways from posts all across the net,(including every method mentioned here) and NOTHING WORKS!

Anyone have a simply solution, or do you think it is a setting on the server??? Would that "global variables turned off" thing be the problem?

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY HELP!!