Question

Let’s say I have a page that refers to a .js file. In that file I have the following code that sets the value of a variable:

var foo;

function bar()
    {
    foo = //some value generated by some type of user input
    }

bar();

Now I’d like to be able to navigate to another page that refers to the same script, and have this variable retain the value set by bar(). What’s the best way to transport the value of this variable, assuming the script will be running anew once I arrive on the next page?

Answer 1

You can use cookies.

Cookies were originally invented by
Netscape to give ‘memory’ to web
servers and browsers. The HTTP
protocol, which arranges for the
transfer of web pages to your browser
and browser requests for pages to
servers, is state-less, which means
that once the server has sent a page
to a browser requesting it, it doesn’t
remember a thing about it. So if you
come to the same web page a second,
third, hundredth or millionth time,
the server once again considers it the
very first time you ever came there.

This can be annoying in a number of
ways. The server cannot remember if
you identified yourself when you want
to access protected pages, it cannot
remember your user preferences, it
cannot remember anything. As soon as
personalization was invented, this
became a major problem.

Cookies were invented to solve this
problem. There are other ways to solve
it, but cookies are easy to maintain
and very versatile.

See: http://www.quirksmode.org/js/cookies.html