Question

I have tried to set a cookie on this page, like this:

<?php
setcookie("fasciaoffer", $name, time()+36000);
?>

I have verified that the cookie is set.

I then want to retrieve the cookie when my customer views their shopping basket and display a message:

<?php
if (isset($_COOKIE["fasciaoffer"]))
   echo "<b>Special offers available</b> - buy any 3 covers & get your 4th     choice   free! " . $_COOKIE["fasciaoffer"] . "!<br />";
else
   echo "<b>Special offers available</b> - none available on current order<br />";
?>

However, the message that comes up in my shopping basket is the one where the cookie has not be found.

What could the problem be? Is my coding correct?

---

PS. The file which the retrieve bit is in (the shopping basket) is not in the root folder.

Answer 1

I’ve always had an interesting time when working with cookies. But here are my thoughts :

1) Are you sure $name is passing a value? To check this, echo out $name after you place your cookie. I usually test my vars with echo(“name : $name
“); just to make sure that my head and PHP are on the same page. If you recieve a null value, there is your problem.

2) I usually find it benefitial to do a page refresh before reading in any cookies. Though you should put a qualifier like if (!isset($_COOKIE[‘fasciaoffer’])) { set cookie code }

I hope that helps.