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                                   setcookie

   (PHP 3, PHP 4 )
   setcookie -- Send a cookie

Description

   bool setcookie ( string name [, string value [, int expire [, string
   path [, string domain [, int secure]]]]])

   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.

     Note: In PHP 4, you can use output buffering to send output prior
     to the call of this function, with the overhead of all of your
     output to the browser being buffered in the server until you send
     it. You can do this by calling ob_start() and ob_end_flush() in
     your script, or setting the output_buffering configuration
     directive on in your php.ini or server configuration files.

   All the arguments except the name argument are optional. You may also
   replace an argument with an empty string ("") in order to skip that
   argument. Because the expire and secure arguments are integers, they
   cannot be skipped with an empty string, use a zero (0) instead. The
   following table explains each parameter of the setcookie() function,
   be sure to read the Netscape cookie specification for specifics on how
   each setcookie() parameter works and RFC 2965 for additional
   information on how HTTP cookies work.

   Table 1. setcookie() parameters explained
   Parameter Description Examples
   name The name of the cookie. 'cookiename' is called as
   $_COOKIE['cookiename']
   value The value of the cookie. This value is stored on the clients
   computer; do not store sensitive information. Assuming the name is
   'cookiename', this value is retrieved through $_COOKIE['cookiename']
   expire The time the cookie expires. This is a Unix timestamp so is in
   number of seconds since the epoch. In otherwords, you'll most likely
   set this with the time() function plus the number of seconds before
   you want it to expire. Or you might use mktime(). time()+60*60*24*30
   will set the cookie to expire in 30 days. If not set, the cookie will
   expire at the end of the session (when the browser closes).
   path The path on the server in which the cookie will be available on.
   If set to '/', the cookie will be available within the entire domain.
   If set to '/foo/', the cookie will only be available within the /foo/
   directory and all sub-directories such as /foo/bar/ of domain. The
   default value is the current directory that the cookie is being set
   in.
   domain The domain that the cookie is available. To make the cookie
   available on all subdomains of example.com then you'd set it to
   '.example.com'. The . is not required but makes it compatible with
   more browsers. Setting it to www.example.com will make the cookie only
   available in the www subdomain. Refer to tail matching in the spec for
   details.
   secure Indicates that the cookie should only be transmitted over a
   secure HTTPS connection. When set to 1, the cookie will only be set if
   a secure connection exists. The default is 0. 0 or 1

   Once the cookies have been set, they can be accessed on the next page
   load with the $_COOKIE or $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS arrays. Note, autoglobals
   such as $_COOKIE became available in PHP 4.1.0. $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS has
   existed since PHP 3. Cookie values also exist in $_REQUEST.

     Note: If the PHP directive register_globals is set to on then
     cookie values will also be made into variables. In our examples
     below, $TextCookie will exist. It's recommended to use $_COOKIE.

   Common Pitfalls:

     * 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);.
     * Cookies must be deleted with the same parameters as they were set
       with. If the value argument is an empty string (""), and all other
       arguments match a previous call to setcookie, then the cookie with
       the specified name will be deleted from the remote client.
     * Cookies names can be set as array names and will be available to
       your PHP scripts as arrays but separate cookies are stored on the
       users system. Consider explode() or serialize() to set one cookie
       with multiple names and values.

   In PHP 3, multiple calls to setcookie() in the same script will be
   performed in reverse order. If you are trying to delete one cookie
   before inserting another you should put the insert before the delete.
   In PHP 4, multiple calls to setcookie() are performed in the order
   called.

   Some examples follow how to send cookies:

   Example 1. setcookie() send example
   <?php
   $value = 'something from somewhere';
   setcookie("TestCookie", $value);
   setcookie("TestCookie", $value, time()+3600);  /* expire in 1 hour */
   setcookie("TestCookie", $value, time()+3600, "/~rasmus/",
   ".example.com", 1);
   ?>

   Note that the value portion of the cookie will automatically be
   urlencoded when you send the cookie, and when it is received, it is
   automatically decoded and assigned to a variable by the same name as
   the cookie name. To see the contents of our test cookie in a script,
   simply use one of the following examples:

   <?php
   // Print an individual cookie
   echo $_COOKIE["TestCookie"];
   echo $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["TestCookie"];
   // Another way to debug/test is to view all cookies
   print_r($_COOKIE);
   ?>

   When deleting a cookie you should assure that the expiration date is
   in the past, to trigger the removal mechanism in your browser.
   Examples follow how to delete cookies sent in previous example:

   Example 2. setcookie() delete example
   <?php
   // set the expiration date to one hour ago
   setcookie ("TestCookie", "", time() - 3600);
   setcookie ("TestCookie", "", time() - 3600, "/~rasmus/",
   ".example.com", 1);
   ?>

   You may also set array cookies by using array notation in the cookie
   name. This has the effect of setting as many cookies as you have array
   elements, but when the cookie is received by your script, the values
   are all placed in an array with the cookie's name:

   Example 3. setcookie() and arrays
   <?php
   // set the cookies
   setcookie("cookie[three]", "cookiethree");
   setcookie("cookie[two]", "cookietwo");
   setcookie("cookie[one]", "cookieone");
   // after the page reloads, print them out
   if (isset($_COOKIE['cookie'])) {
       foreach ($_COOKIE['cookie'] as $name => $value) {
           echo "$name : $value <br />\n";
       }
   }
   ?>

   which prints
three : cookiethree
two : cookietwo
one : cookieone

     Note: For more information on cookies, see Netscape's cookie
     specification at
     http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html and RFC 2965.

     You may notice the expire parameter takes on a Unix timestamp, as
     opposed to the date format Wdy, DD-Mon-YYYY HH:MM:SS GMT, this is
     because PHP does this conversion internally.

     Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 with Service Pack 1 applied
     does not correctly deal with cookies that have their path parameter
     set.

     Netscape Communicator 4.05 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x
     appear to handle cookies incorrectly when the path and time are not
     set.

   See also header() and the cookies section.
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