Question

We have a site that uses ExpressionEngine as the CMS. We also use Magento’s cart in the e-commerce part of our site. I’m having difficulties with cookies and making them accessible in different areas.

We use a cookie for search selections so when the user returns to our schedule page it
remembers the last selection they saved, up to 2 days ago.

I also allow them to use the URL to set them using the URLs shown in the comment below.
The cookie is used to filter items on the schedule based on the last or last 2 segments.

//*****************************************************************************
// This is from an Expressionengine base template to set the cookie before the
// header is sent.
// These are ExpressionEngine tags that evaluate the path segments
// the URL is www.mysite/schedule/CMOL or www.mysite/schedule/CM/TX
//*****************************************************************************
{if segment_1 == "schedule" }
  {if segment_2 != ""}
<?php  
    $state = '{segment_3}'; // Could be empty
    $pro = '';
    //*******************************************************
    // clear the searchItems cookie
    // this doesn't actually clear the cookie for some reason.
    //*******************************************************
    setcookie("searchItems", "", time()-7200, '/schedule/');
    {if segment_2 == 'CMOL'}
        $state = 'OL';
        $pro = '21_FUN,22_HAN,23_MEA,24_FSR,25_ADM';
    {/if}
    {if segment_2 == "CM"}
        $pro = '21_FUN,22_HAN,23_MEA,24_FSR,25_ADM';
    {/if}
    $cookie = '2013][][0][25]['.$state.']['.$pro.'][true';

    //*******************************************************
    // Now reset it to the pro and/or state selection expires 
    // 2 days from now.
    //*******************************************************
    setcookie("searchItems", $cookie, time()+172800, '/schedule/');
?>  
  {/if}

Now, on the schedule page, I have some javascript to set the cookie in the window.onUnload
to set the cookie for their search preferences. The code and value used to set the cookie in javascript looks like this:

// Values
// c_name  = "searchItems"
// c_value = "2013%5D%5B%5D%5B0%5D%5B25%5D%5BOL%5D%5B16_FUN%2C17_HAN%2C18_MEA%2C19_FSR%2C20_ADM%5D%5Btrue; path=/schedule/;;  expires=Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:09:37 GMT"

//*******************************************************   
// Function to set the search preference cookie
//*******************************************************   
function setCookie(c_name,value,exdays) {
    var exdate=new Date();
    exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
    var c_value=escape(value) + '; path=/schedule/;' + ((exdays==null) ? "" : "");
    if(remember_params_flag) {
        c_value += " expires="+exdate.toUTCString();
    }
    document.cookie=c_name + "=" + c_value+';';
}

What am I doing wrong as far as cookies go in order to make them work across all browsers? They do not have to share this information between browsers, only browser sessions.

BTW, due to the inconsistencies between the SESSION handling in Magento and ExpressionEngine, I can not accept a PHP SESSION option.

Answer 1

I went through and double checked all the places I was writing and reading the cookies. I made sure they were all written in the same manner, using the domain and making sure that the expiration was all set the the same value.

Everything looks like it’s working now.