3 # See the bottom of this file for the POD documentation. Search for the
6 # You can run this file through either pod2man or pod2html to produce pretty
7 # documentation in manual or html file format (these utilities are part of the
8 # Perl 5 distribution).
10 # Copyright 1995-1999, Lincoln D. Stein. All rights reserved.
11 # It may be used and modified freely, but I do request that this copyright
12 # notice remain attached to the file. You may modify this module as you
13 # wish, but if you redistribute a modified version, please attach a note
14 # listing the modifications you have made.
16 $CGI::Cookie::VERSION='1.10';
19 use overload '""' => \&as_string,
23 # fetch a list of cookies from the environment and
24 # return as a hash. the cookies are parsed as normal
28 my $raw_cookie = $ENV{HTTP_COOKIE} || $ENV{COOKIE};
29 return () unless $raw_cookie;
30 return $class->parse($raw_cookie);
33 # fetch a list of cookies from the environment and
34 # return as a hash. the cookie values are not unescaped
35 # or altered in any way.
38 my $raw_cookie = $ENV{HTTP_COOKIE} || $ENV{COOKIE};
39 return () unless $raw_cookie;
43 my(@pairs) = split("; ",$raw_cookie);
45 if (/^([^=]+)=(.*)/) {
53 $results{$key} = $value;
55 return \%results unless wantarray;
60 my ($self,$raw_cookie) = @_;
63 my(@pairs) = split("; ",$raw_cookie);
65 my($key,$value) = split("=");
66 my(@values) = map CGI::unescape($_),split('&',$value);
67 $key = CGI::unescape($key);
68 # A bug in Netscape can cause several cookies with same name to
69 # appear. The FIRST one in HTTP_COOKIE is the most recent version.
70 $results{$key} ||= $self->new(-name=>$key,-value=>\@values);
72 return \%results unless wantarray;
78 $class = ref($class) if ref($class);
79 my($name,$value,$path,$domain,$secure,$expires) =
80 CGI->rearrange([NAME,[VALUE,VALUES],PATH,DOMAIN,SECURE,EXPIRES],@_);
82 # Pull out our parameters.
85 if (ref($value) eq 'ARRAY') {
87 } elsif (ref($value) eq 'HASH') {
99 # IE requires the path and domain to be present for some reason.
100 $path ||= CGI::url(-absolute=>1);
101 $domain ||= CGI::virtual_host();
103 $self->path($path) if defined $path;
104 $self->domain($domain) if defined $domain;
105 $self->secure($secure) if defined $secure;
106 $self->expires($expires) if defined $expires;
112 return "" unless $self->name;
114 my(@constant_values,$domain,$path,$expires,$secure);
116 push(@constant_values,"domain=$domain") if $domain = $self->domain;
117 push(@constant_values,"path=$path") if $path = $self->path;
118 push(@constant_values,"expires=$expires") if $expires = $self->expires;
119 push(@constant_values,'secure') if $secure = $self->secure;
121 my($key) = CGI::escape($self->name);
122 my($cookie) = join("=",$key,join("&",map CGI::escape($_),$self->value));
123 return join("; ",$cookie,@constant_values);
129 return "$self" cmp $value;
136 $self->{'name'} = $name if defined $name;
137 return $self->{'name'};
143 $self->{'value'} = $value if defined $value;
144 return wantarray ? @{$self->{'value'}} : $self->{'value'}->[0]
150 $self->{'domain'} = $domain if defined $domain;
151 return $self->{'domain'};
157 $self->{'secure'} = $secure if defined $secure;
158 return $self->{'secure'};
164 $self->{'expires'} = CGI::expires($expires,'cookie') if defined $expires;
165 return $self->{'expires'};
171 $self->{'path'} = $path if defined $path;
172 return $self->{'path'};
179 CGI::Cookie - Interface to Netscape Cookies
183 use CGI qw/:standard/;
186 # Create new cookies and send them
187 $cookie1 = new CGI::Cookie(-name=>'ID',-value=>123456);
188 $cookie2 = new CGI::Cookie(-name=>'preferences',
189 -value=>{ font => Helvetica,
192 print header(-cookie=>[$cookie1,$cookie2]);
194 # fetch existing cookies
195 %cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;
196 $id = $cookies{'ID'}->value;
198 # create cookies returned from an external source
199 %cookies = parse CGI::Cookie($ENV{COOKIE});
203 CGI::Cookie is an interface to Netscape (HTTP/1.1) cookies, an
204 innovation that allows Web servers to store persistent information on
205 the browser's side of the connection. Although CGI::Cookie is
206 intended to be used in conjunction with CGI.pm (and is in fact used by
207 it internally), you can use this module independently.
209 For full information on cookies see
211 http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/rfc2109.txt
213 =head1 USING CGI::Cookie
215 CGI::Cookie is object oriented. Each cookie object has a name and a
216 value. The name is any scalar value. The value is any scalar or
217 array value (associative arrays are also allowed). Cookies also have
218 several optional attributes, including:
222 =item B<1. expiration date>
224 The expiration date tells the browser how long to hang on to the
225 cookie. If the cookie specifies an expiration date in the future, the
226 browser will store the cookie information in a disk file and return it
227 to the server every time the user reconnects (until the expiration
228 date is reached). If the cookie species an expiration date in the
229 past, the browser will remove the cookie from the disk file. If the
230 expiration date is not specified, the cookie will persist only until
231 the user quits the browser.
235 This is a partial or complete domain name for which the cookie is
236 valid. The browser will return the cookie to any host that matches
237 the partial domain name. For example, if you specify a domain name
238 of ".capricorn.com", then Netscape will return the cookie to
239 Web servers running on any of the machines "www.capricorn.com",
240 "ftp.capricorn.com", "feckless.capricorn.com", etc. Domain names
241 must contain at least two periods to prevent attempts to match
242 on top level domains like ".edu". If no domain is specified, then
243 the browser will only return the cookie to servers on the host the
244 cookie originated from.
248 If you provide a cookie path attribute, the browser will check it
249 against your script's URL before returning the cookie. For example,
250 if you specify the path "/cgi-bin", then the cookie will be returned
251 to each of the scripts "/cgi-bin/tally.pl", "/cgi-bin/order.pl", and
252 "/cgi-bin/customer_service/complain.pl", but not to the script
253 "/cgi-private/site_admin.pl". By default, the path is set to the
254 directory that contains your script.
256 =item B<4. secure flag>
258 If the "secure" attribute is set, the cookie will only be sent to your
259 script if the CGI request is occurring on a secure channel, such as SSL.
263 =head2 Creating New Cookies
265 $c = new CGI::Cookie(-name => 'foo',
268 -domain => '.capricorn.com',
269 -path => '/cgi-bin/database'
273 Create cookies from scratch with the B<new> method. The B<-name> and
274 B<-value> parameters are required. The name must be a scalar value.
275 The value can be a scalar, an array reference, or a hash reference.
276 (At some point in the future cookies will support one of the Perl
277 object serialization protocols for full generality).
279 B<-expires> accepts any of the relative or absolute date formats
280 recognized by CGI.pm, for example "+3M" for three months in the
281 future. See CGI.pm's documentation for details.
283 B<-domain> points to a domain name or to a fully qualified host name.
284 If not specified, the cookie will be returned only to the Web server
287 B<-path> points to a partial URL on the current server. The cookie
288 will be returned to all URLs beginning with the specified path. If
289 not specified, it defaults to '/', which returns the cookie to all
292 B<-secure> if set to a true value instructs the browser to return the
293 cookie only when a cryptographic protocol is in use.
295 =head2 Sending the Cookie to the Browser
297 Within a CGI script you can send a cookie to the browser by creating
298 one or more Set-Cookie: fields in the HTTP header. Here is a typical
301 my $c = new CGI::Cookie(-name => 'foo',
302 -value => ['bar','baz'],
305 print "Set-Cookie: $c\n";
306 print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
308 To send more than one cookie, create several Set-Cookie: fields.
309 Alternatively, you may concatenate the cookies together with "; " and
310 send them in one field.
312 If you are using CGI.pm, you send cookies by providing a -cookie
313 argument to the header() method:
315 print header(-cookie=>$c);
317 Mod_perl users can set cookies using the request object's header_out()
320 $r->header_out('Set-Cookie',$c);
322 Internally, Cookie overloads the "" operator to call its as_string()
323 method when incorporated into the HTTP header. as_string() turns the
324 Cookie's internal representation into an RFC-compliant text
325 representation. You may call as_string() yourself if you prefer:
327 print "Set-Cookie: ",$c->as_string,"\n";
329 =head2 Recovering Previous Cookies
331 %cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;
333 B<fetch> returns an associative array consisting of all cookies
334 returned by the browser. The keys of the array are the cookie names. You
335 can iterate through the cookies this way:
337 %cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;
338 foreach (keys %cookies) {
339 do_something($cookies{$_});
342 In a scalar context, fetch() returns a hash reference, which may be more
343 efficient if you are manipulating multiple cookies.
345 CGI.pm uses the URL escaping methods to save and restore reserved characters
346 in its cookies. If you are trying to retrieve a cookie set by a foreign server,
347 this escaping method may trip you up. Use raw_fetch() instead, which has the
348 same semantics as fetch(), but performs no unescaping.
350 You may also retrieve cookies that were stored in some external
351 form using the parse() class method:
353 $COOKIES = `cat /usr/tmp/Cookie_stash`;
354 %cookies = parse CGI::Cookie($COOKIES);
356 =head2 Manipulating Cookies
358 Cookie objects have a series of accessor methods to get and set cookie
359 attributes. Each accessor has a similar syntax. Called without
360 arguments, the accessor returns the current value of the attribute.
361 Called with an argument, the accessor changes the attribute and
362 returns its new value.
368 Get or set the cookie's name. Example:
371 $new_name = $c->name('fred');
375 Get or set the cookie's value. Example:
378 @new_value = $c->value(['a','b','c','d']);
380 B<value()> is context sensitive. In an array context it will return
381 the current value of the cookie as an array. In a scalar context it
382 will return the B<first> value of a multivalued cookie.
386 Get or set the cookie's domain.
390 Get or set the cookie's path.
394 Get or set the cookie's expiration time.
399 =head1 AUTHOR INFORMATION
401 Copyright 1997-1998, Lincoln D. Stein. All rights reserved.
403 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
404 it under the same terms as Perl itself.
406 Address bug reports and comments to: lstein@cshl.org
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