Re: Server getting and utilizing cookie

[dvergin]

You still need a way to tell if the client is not accepting cookies. Otherwise you just keep making cookies and coming back to discover that the client needs a cookie. Here's the logic I'd use (in pseudo-code obviously):

if $cookie = $cgi->cookie("Whatever")
   check to see if it meets our standards
   do business
#elsif $cgi->cookie("CookieTest")     ## Oops! mistyped...
elsif $cgi->param("CookieTest")       ## Corrected
   #we tried to set a cookie and failed
   bailout
else
   set the cookie
   set a http location: header line that includes:
       the url by which we arrived here +
       CookieTest=1 in the query string
   clean up and exit
end

More questions? Just ask...

[sutch]

This is close to what I have done for testing for users/browsers acceptance of cookies. Instead of using a test cookie though, directly set the necessary cookie and pass a query string in the redirect. I have run into situations where a user may accept one cookie but not the next!

Modifying dvergin's pseudo-code:

if $cookie = $cgi->cookie("CookieName")
   check to see if it meets our standards
   do business
else
   if $cgi->param("TestingCookie")   # no need to test value
      #we tried to set a cookie and failed
      bailout  # or notify user of cookie failure and continue

   set the cookie
   set a http location: header line that includes:
       the url by which we arrived here +
       CookieName=value in the query string +
       a query string TestingCookie=1
   clean up and exit
end

[dvergin]

Good catch sutch. I puzzled over your comments until I realized that I had mis-typed. The line in my post should, of course, be:

       elsif $cgi->param("CookieTest")
not    elsif $cgi->cookie("CookieTest")

And with that, I think our solutions are substantially the same.

[Hammy]

I implemented that solution (sort of) and I continually set the cookie everytime through the loop. I guess I don't quite get the "set the http location...." piece. My cookie must never get set. Any advice?