Question

Is it OK to send cookie headers directly with header() calls?

I am tinkering with http cookie mechanism in PHP and would like (at least initially) to try the “raw” thing 🙂

The Brad Christie’s answer to “php-how-to-stringify-array-and-store-in-cookie” assumes it is, but is there a somehow official source on the topic (or is it at least a well-known practice)?

Thanks in advance for clarifying the topic.

[EDIT: AN IMPORTANT NOTICE]

An interesting thing I have discovered is that calling header('Set-Cookie: ...'); effectively prevents any cookies previously supplied with setcookie('...'); from being sent, at least on my machine (PHP 5.3.5, Apache 2.2.17, WinXP SP2). Whether this is a feature / bug(?) or a consequence of PHP semantics/rules violation, I don’t know.

Analyzing PHP .c sources will possibly bring an answer (one should posibly look into head.c (header(), setcookie(), etc) and mod_php5.c (Apache module) files for that).

Answer 1

IT IS NOT

Please see the “edit” part of the question.