PERL CGI Beginners - What could prevent a cookie from being set?

Author

What could prevent a cookie from being set?

Ingo Weiss

2004-05-22, 11:32 am

Hi all,

I am using CGI to set a cookie:

# create cookie:
$packed_cookie =3D $query->cookie(-NAME =3D> "cookieName",
-VALUE =3D> "cookieValue",
-EXPIRES =3D> "+10m" );
=20
# set cookie: =20
print $query->header (-COOKIE =3D> $packed_cookie);

Now I am experiencin a problem that looks like the cookie is not
being set, but only on specific machines on specific browsers.

What are the factors that could prevent a cookie from being set?

Thanks!
Ingo

Wiggins D Anconia

2004-05-22, 11:32 am

> Hi all,
>
> I am using CGI to set a cookie:
>
>
> # create cookie:
> $packed_cookie = $query->cookie(-NAME => "cookieName",
> -VALUE => "cookieValue",
> -EXPIRES => "+10m" );
>
> # set cookie:
> print $query->header (-COOKIE => $packed_cookie);
>
>
> Now I am experiencin a problem that looks like the cookie is not
> being set, but only on specific machines on specific browsers.
>
> What are the factors that could prevent a cookie from being set?
>

A cookie is simply a standardized header returned before content. I saw
your post on the other list, and the browsers you mention may have not
implemented the standards properly. I would suggest using telnet or an
application that can read raw headers (there is an excellent plugin for
mozilla that does this, but I can't remember its name off the top of my
head, I posted it in a message to this list a while ago), to check what
headers are being printed and to guarantee they look correct. Then
check the browsers where they don't work, and check for known issues
with those browsers and cookie handling. Checking the actual header
will show you exactly how the cookie is attempting to be set and should
reveal if you are doing something wrong, or possibly something the older
browser doesn't understand. Of course if this really is a browser issue
I would suggest you not waste time on it, people need to be using a new
browser preferably one that implements standards corretly, but then I no
longer work professionally as a web developer and now have the luxury of
this attitude ;-)...

http://danconia.org

Ingo Weiss

2004-05-22, 11:32 am

Thanks!

I used the terminal to ssh into my server and run the script from
the command line. This is the output:

"
Set-Cookie: ART635=3Diweiss; path=3D/; expires=3DFri, 07-May-2004
15:28:27 GMT
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 15:18:27 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=3DISO-8859-1

<?xml version=3D"1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
"
=2E..

Does that look correct?

Ingo

not[color=darkred]
browsers.[color=darkred]
set?[color=darkred]
>=20
> A cookie is simply a standardized header returned before
content. I saw
> your post on the other list, and the browsers you mention may
have not
> implemented the standards properly. I would suggest using
telnet or an
> application that can read raw headers (there is an excellent
plugin for
> mozilla that does this, but I can't remember its name off the
top of my
> head, I posted it in a message to this list a while ago), to
check what
> headers are being printed and to guarantee they look correct.
Then
> check the browsers where they don't work, and check for known
issues
> with those browsers and cookie handling. Checking the actual
header
> will show you exactly how the cookie is attempting to be set
and should
> reveal if you are doing something wrong, or possibly something
the older
> browser doesn't understand. Of course if this really is a
browser issue
> I would suggest you not waste time on it, people need to be
using a new
> browser preferably one that implements standards corretly, but
then I no
> longer work professionally as a web developer and now have the
luxury of
> this attitude ;-)...
>=20
> http://danconia.org

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