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CGI::Cookie(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide CGI::Cookie(3pm)

NAME

CGI::Cookie - Interface to Netscape Cookies

SYNOPSIS

use CGI qw/:standard/;

use CGI::Cookie;

# Create new cookies and send them

$cookie1 = new CGI::Cookie(-name=>'ID',-value=>123456);

$cookie2 = new CGI::Cookie(-name=>'preferences',

-value=>{ font => Helvetica,

size => 12 } );

print header(-cookie=>[$cookie1,$cookie2]);

# fetch existing cookies

%cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;

$id = $cookies{'ID'}->value;

# create cookies returned from an external source

%cookies = parse CGI::Cookie($ENV{COOKIE});

DESCRIPTION

CGI::Cookie is an interface to Netscape (HTTP/1.1) cookies, an innova-

tion that allows Web servers to store persistent information on the

browser's side of the connection. Although CGI::Cookie is intended to

be used in conjunction with CGI.pm (and is in fact used by it inter-

nally), you can use this module independently. For full information on cookies see http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/rfc2109.txt UUSSIINNGG CCGGII::::CCooookkiiee

CGI::Cookie is object oriented. Each cookie object has a name and a

value. The name is any scalar value. The value is any scalar or array value (associative arrays are also allowed). Cookies also have several optional attributes, including: 11.. eexxppiirraattiioonn ddaattee The expiration date tells the browser how long to hang on to the cookie. If the cookie specifies an expiration date in the future, the browser will store the cookie information in a disk file and return it to the server every time the user reconnects (until the expiration date is reached). If the cookie species an expiration date in the past, the browser will remove the cookie from the disk file. If the expiration date is not specified, the cookie will persist only until the user quits the browser. 22.. ddoommaaiinn This is a partial or complete domain name for which the cookie is valid. The browser will return the cookie to any host that matches the partial domain name. For example, if you specify a domain name of ".capricorn.com", then Netscape will return the cookie to Web servers running on any of the machines "www.capricorn.com", "ftp.capricorn.com", "feckless.capricorn.com", etc. Domain names must contain at least two periods to prevent attempts to match on top level domains like ".edu". If no domain is specified, then the browser will only return the cookie to servers on the host the cookie originated from. 33.. ppaatthh If you provide a cookie path attribute, the browser will check it

against your script's URL before returning the cookie. For exam-

ple, if you specify the path "/cgi-bin", then the cookie will be

returned to each of the scripts "/cgi-bin/tally.pl",

"/cgi-bin/order.pl", and "/cgi-bin/customerservice/complain.pl",

but not to the script "/cgi-private/siteadmin.pl". By default,

the path is set to "/", so that all scripts at your site will receive the cookie. 44.. sseeccuurree ffllaagg If the "secure" attribute is set, the cookie will only be sent to your script if the CGI request is occurring on a secure channel, such as SSL. CCrreeaattiinngg NNeeww CCooookkiieess

$c = new CGI::Cookie(-name => 'foo',

-value => 'bar',

-expires => '+3M',

-domain => '.capricorn.com',

-path => '/cgi-bin/database',

-secure => 1

);

Create cookies from scratch with the nneeww method. The -nnaammee and -vvaalluuee

parameters are required. The name must be a scalar value. The value can be a scalar, an array reference, or a hash reference. (At some

point in the future cookies will support one of the Perl object serial-

ization protocols for full generality).

-eexxppiirreess accepts any of the relative or absolute date formats recog-

nized by CGI.pm, for example "+3M" for three months in the future. See CGI.pm's documentation for details.

-ddoommaaiinn points to a domain name or to a fully qualified host name. If

not specified, the cookie will be returned only to the Web server that created it.

-ppaatthh points to a partial URL on the current server. The cookie will

be returned to all URLs beginning with the specified path. If not specified, it defaults to '/', which returns the cookie to all pages at your site.

-sseeccuurree if set to a true value instructs the browser to return the

cookie only when a cryptographic protocol is in use. SSeennddiinngg tthhee CCooookkiiee ttoo tthhee BBrroowwsseerr Within a CGI script you can send a cookie to the browser by creating

one or more Set-Cookie: fields in the HTTP header. Here is a typical

sequence:

my $c = new CGI::Cookie(-name => 'foo',

-value => ['bar','baz'],

-expires => '+3M');

print "Set-Cookie: $c\n";

print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";

To send more than one cookie, create several Set-Cookie: fields.

If you are using CGI.pm, you send cookies by providing a -cookie argu-

ment to the header() method:

print header(-cookie=>$c);

Modperl users can set cookies using the request object's headerout() method:

$r->headersout->set('Set-Cookie' => $c);

Internally, Cookie overloads the "" operator to call its asstring() method when incorporated into the HTTP header. asstring() turns the

Cookie's internal representation into an RFC-compliant text representa-

tion. You may call asstring() yourself if you prefer:

print "Set-Cookie: ",$c->asstring,"\n";

RReeccoovveerriinngg PPrreevviioouuss CCooookkiieess

%cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;

ffeettcchh returns an associative array consisting of all cookies returned by the browser. The keys of the array are the cookie names. You can iterate through the cookies this way:

%cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;

foreach (keys %cookies) {

dosomething($cookies{$});

} In a scalar context, fetch() returns a hash reference, which may be more efficient if you are manipulating multiple cookies.

CGI.pm uses the URL escaping methods to save and restore reserved char-

acters in its cookies. If you are trying to retrieve a cookie set by a foreign server, this escaping method may trip you up. Use rawfetch() instead, which has the same semantics as fetch(), but performs no unescaping. You may also retrieve cookies that were stored in some external form using the parse() class method:

$COOKIES = `cat /usr/tmp/Cookiestash`;

%cookies = parse CGI::Cookie($COOKIES);

If you are in a modperl environment, you can save some overhead by passing the request object to fetch() like this:

CGI::Cookie->fetch($r);

MMaanniippuullaattiinngg CCooookkiieess Cookie objects have a series of accessor methods to get and set cookie

attributes. Each accessor has a similar syntax. Called without argu-

ments, the accessor returns the current value of the attribute. Called with an argument, the accessor changes the attribute and returns its new value. nnaammee(()) Get or set the cookie's name. Example:

$name = $c->name;

$newname = $c->name('fred');

vvaalluuee(()) Get or set the cookie's value. Example:

$value = $c->value;

@newvalue = $c->value(['a','b','c','d']);

vvaalluuee(()) is context sensitive. In a list context it will return the current value of the cookie as an array. In a scalar context it will return the ffiirrsstt value of a multivalued cookie. ddoommaaiinn(()) Get or set the cookie's domain. ppaatthh(()) Get or set the cookie's path. eexxppiirreess(()) Get or set the cookie's expiration time. AUTHOR INFORMATION

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Address bug reports and comments to: lstein@cshl.org

BUGS

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