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Reading and Deleting Cookies

7:14 with Alena Holligan

Reading cookie variable works like reading session and other variables. We can access one directly or look over the array of cookie variable. To delete a cookie, we set the cookie to an empty string that expires in the past. Making sure to use the same path we used for the original cookie.

Teacher's Notes
Questions?
Video Transcript
Downloads
Workspaces

Documentation

setcookie() — Send a cookie

implode() — Join array elements with a string

explode() — Split a string by string

urlencode() — URL-encodes string

range() — Create an array containing a range of elements

array_combine() — Creates an array by using one array for keys and another for its values

date() — Format a local time/date

For date formatting, see the date() function.

Type Juggling — Casting to an integer and other type casting

// assuming the name is 'cookiename', retrieve a single value
echo $_COOKIE['cookiename'];

// assuming the name is 'cookiename'
// 1. setting array values by specifying key
setcookie('cookiename[1]', 'value1');
setcookie('cookiename[2]', 'value2');

// 2. retreiving array values
echo $_COOKIE['cookiename'][0];
echo $_COOKIE['cookiename'][1];

// will display
value1value2

To delete a cookie, we set the cookie to an empty string that expires in the past. Making sure to use the same path we used for the original cookie.

// Where $_GET['delete'] is the name of the cookie
setcookie($_GET['delete'], "", time() - 3600, '/');

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Now that we can save a cookie the next thing we need to do is read the cookie and 0:00

show the name on the welcome page. 0:04

So we open index.php. 0:07

The cookie variable works just like the session variable, 0:09

so let's loop through the array. 0:12

If is set cookie, for 0:17

each cookie as key and value. 0:21

Echo key. 0:34

And the we'll add a line break. 0:37

Let's take a look at this in the browser. 0:39

We'll step through our story. 0:42

Then from our story page, we choose save story. 0:58

We're redirected to the welcome page where our cookies are displayed. 1:02

You'll notice that we have a cookie named PHPSESSID. 1:06

This is how php ties sessions to a browser. 1:10

Let's go back to work spaces and add the ability to set a cookie and 1:14

rewrite the story. 1:18

First we don't want to read the PHPSESSID. 1:20

If key is not equal to PHPSESSID Then, 1:29

we want to add a div to style these links. 1:38

Next we add a link. 1:55

We're going to send them to our cookie file again. 2:06

This time with the read 2:08

parameter set to the file. 2:12

Urlencode the key. 2:17

We added the timestamp to the end of our cookie, so lets display the name and 2:29

then a formatted date instead of the timestamp. 2:33

And the name all together. 2:36

To get just the name we can use substring. 2:39

We start with the 0, and we end with -10 because, time stamps are ten characters. 2:47

Add a space between the name and the date. 2:56

And now, we can use the date function to format the date. 3:00

Day, month, year. 3:08

Hour, minute, second. 3:11

Now we use substring again, this time starting with -10. 3:15

Our cookie name is a string. 3:21

Even though the last 10 characters that we're pulling are numbers. 3:23

The date function requires a timestamp, so 3:27

we need to cast the timestamp string to an int. 3:30

Now we can update our cookie script to read the cookie's value. 3:39

Back in cookie.php, we're going to 3:43

add elseif (isset($_GET['read]. 3:48

To read the cookie, we want to split the cookie string into the individual values, 4:00

and update the session variables. 4:05

We'll use explode. 4:10

We tell it to use the colon as our delimiter. 4:13

And then Cookie Get Read. 4:18

This will give us a word array. 4:28

But it will start with the zero index. 4:30

We can use array_combine to specify the keys we wish to use. 4:33

The first parameter in array_combine are the keys, 4:37

the second parameter are the values. 4:41

So for our keys, we want to arrange, of 1 to five. 4:44

Now we can redirect to our story page. 4:52

Let's give this a try in the browser. 5:04

Refresh the Welcome page. 5:09

And now we can click on our cookie. 5:11

This reads the contents of the cookie and sets the session variables. 5:15

So that when we're redirected to the story page our stories written properly. 5:19

One last thing we should add is the ability to delete a cookie. 5:23

Let's go back to workspaces. 5:27

In our cookie file we can add another else if to check for delete, 5:29

To delete a cookie we set the cookie to an empty string that expires in the past. 5:45

Making sure to use the same path we used for original cookie. 5:51

Set cookie. 5:56

Empty string, time minus 3,600, which is one hour. 6:04

And then, the root path. 6:14

After this action, we also want to redirect to our index.php. 6:17

So let's move this outside the if statement. 6:22

Now let's go back to index.php and add a link to delete the cookie. 6:29

We'll copy this first link we have. 6:37

We'll change btn-info to btn-danger. 6:42

We'll also change read to delete. 6:47

Then instead of the cookie name we'll just use X. 6:54

Let's try out this last feature in the browser. 6:59

Choose other stories and click on the X next to the cookie name. 7:05

Boom our cookie is gone. 7:11

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