Javascript cookies?

[Bert]

I have been reading the post and the FAQ and have been unable to find
anything that will help with my problem.

First let me say that I am not a web developer, designer and no next to
nothing about javascript. I am just rebuilding my site and need help. We run
a bamboo nursery and the site has listings of over 100 varieties we sell.
The site uses regular pages and framesets for the discriptions of the
bamboo. The framesets have a top frame, left frame and main frame.

The left frame has a listing of all our varities which can be sorted in
several ways (height, diam. etc). Clicking on a variety loads the
description for the variety in the main frame. All of these files are
located in a directory called bamboo-frames.

We also have frames sets with the same layout that gives the user the
opprotunity to select a sub set of varieties by use. These files are located
in a directory called bamboo-uses but the lelt frame calls the description
page from the bamboo-frames directory.

The main frame for both the above sorts has the following starting mainframe
code:

Head
<script language=javascript
src="../bamboo-cookies/bamboo-cookies.js"></script>

body

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
var pic = getCookie("sizepic");
if (!pic) {
pic = "Full size";
setCookie('sizepic', pic);
}
// -->
</SCRIPT>

My html code

<form>
<input name="" type="button" onClick="setCookie('sizepic','Full size') "
value="Full size">
<input name="" type="button" onClick="setCookie('sizepic','Half size')"
value="Half size">
<input name="" type="button" onClick="alert(getCookie('sizepic'))"
value="Current size">
</form>

The functions were downloaded and pasted into bamboo-cookies.js

Clicking on the alert button will give the correct results regardless of the
starting main frame.

On the description pages if have the following code:

head
<script language=javascript
src="../bamboo-cookies/bamboo-cookies.js"></script>

body
My html

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
var pic = getCookie("sizepic");
switch(pic)
{
case "Full size":document.write("<img src='../bamboo-photos/bamboo-0105.jpg'
alt='Bamboo - P. bambusoides tanakae' width='480' height='640'
hspace='10'>");
; break
case "Half size": document.write("<img
src='../bamboo-photos50/bamboo-0105.jpg' alt='Bamboo - P. bambusoides
tanakae' width='240' height='320' hspace='10'>");
; break
default: document.write("<img src='../bamboo-photos/bamboo-0105.jpg'
alt='Bamboo - P. bambusoides tanakae' width='480' height='640'
hspace='10'>");
; break
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>

When calling the description page from the bamboo-frames directory the
correct size photo is download with the page.

When calling the description page from the bamboo-uses directory the last
size called from the bamboo-frames directory is used even though the buttons
apparently change the cookie value.

In the comments of the setCookie function it says the default directory is
path=/ so I do not pass a value.

I don't understand all that is happening but hope someone can see what I am
doing wrong. I have been trying to get this to work for 4 days now and am
really frustrated by my lack of knowledge.

Any guidance appreciated.

Bert

[Bert]

"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote in message
news:10*************@corp.supernews.com...

I have been reading the post and the FAQ and have been unable to find
anything that will help with my problem. (snip)
I don't understand all that is happening but hope someone can see what I am doing wrong. I have been trying to get this to work for 4 days now and am
really frustrated by my lack of knowledge.

Any guidance appreciated.

Bert

On further searching I have found the following:

I have added a expire time- did not correct problem

The buttons on the bamboo-uses frameset main page return the value of the
cookie, however when I call the
bamboo-frames/description-mainframe page I get a null when the getCookie
function is called and the switch default is executed.

Maybe this will help in recommending a solution.

Bert

[Robert]

In article <10*************@corp.supernews.com>,
"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote:

"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote in message
news:10*************@corp.supernews.com...

I have been reading the post and the FAQ and have been unable to find
anything that will help with my problem. (snip)

I don't understand all that is happening but hope someone can see what I

am

doing wrong. I have been trying to get this to work for 4 days now and am
really frustrated by my lack of knowledge.

Any guidance appreciated.

Bert

On further searching I have found the following:

I have added a expire time- did not correct problem

Best to set the expiration time. Sometimes IE gets confused.
The buttons on the bamboo-uses frameset main page return the value of the
cookie, however when I call the
bamboo-frames/description-mainframe page I get a null when the getCookie
function is called and the switch default is executed.

Maybe this will help in recommending a solution.

Bert

Maybe you are hitting some security restriction.

When you do not specify a path parameter, your client needs to load all
the html file from the same directory or any subdirectory of the
directory.

See the path parameter and domain parameter to relax what html pages can
read the cookie.

Did this code work before? What was changed just before the code
stopped working?

Could you give a URL?

Robert

[Robert]

In article <10*************@corp.supernews.com>,
"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote:

Codes are more difficult than they appear.

Try the page in Netscape 7.1 (gekco). In Netscape 7.1 you can use the
cookie manager to see your cookies. This way you can verify that a
cookie has been set. You can turn on privacy and security -> cookies ->
"ask me before storing a cookie" to see when a cookie is stored.

You can see your cookie files in IE too, but it isn't as easy as
Netscape imho.

Robert

[Bert]

"Robert" <rc*******@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:rc*****************************@news4.west.ea rthlink.net...

In article <10*************@corp.supernews.com>,
"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote:

"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote in message
news:10*************@corp.supernews.com...

I have been reading the post and the FAQ and have been unable to find
anything that will help with my problem.

(snip)

I don't understand all that is happening but hope someone can see what I

am

doing wrong. I have been trying to get this to work for 4 days now and

am really frustrated by my lack of knowledge.

Any guidance appreciated.

Bert

On further searching I have found the following:

I have added a expire time- did not correct problem

Best to set the expiration time. Sometimes IE gets confused.

The buttons on the bamboo-uses frameset main page return the value of

the cookie, however when I call the
bamboo-frames/description-mainframe page I get a null when the getCookie
function is called and the switch default is executed.

Maybe this will help in recommending a solution.

Bert

Maybe you are hitting some security restriction.

When you do not specify a path parameter, your client needs to load all
the html file from the same directory or any subdirectory of the
directory.

See the path parameter and domain parameter to relax what html pages can
read the cookie.

Did this code work before? What was changed just before the code
stopped working?

Could you give a URL?

Robert

Thanks Robert,

I am still working on the site on my local machine so no url yet.

The code never worked I am just trying to get it to.

Thanks for the advice and suggestions. I will try NetScape to see if I can
find anything when I get time. I have decided not to use the code in the
USES directory until I have time to try to learn enough to understand what
is happening.

Again thanks and I will be back later when I try to get it working.

I also want to express my thanks to all the folks that post here What I have
learned so far is from reading the post.

Bert

[Robert]

Robert <rc*******@my-deja.com> wrote in message news:<rc*****************************@news4.west.e arthlink.net>...

In article <10*************@corp.supernews.com>,
"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote:

Codes are more difficult than they appear.

Here are my suggestions.

1) Always set the expiration time. IE works better.

2) You may have disabled cookies. In IE, I had to go to the site then
check whether or not cookies were enabled.

3) Maybe your cookie rountines could use improvements.
I suggest using an existing set of cookie routines. The
document.cookie can contain existing cookies and you need to preserve
them. ( Don't know why such routines aren't shipped with the browsers.
)
~kaeli~ has developed some cookie code. You may view it in this
article:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...859-1&selm=MPG
..1af96c2a4f8abc94989dcc%40nntp.lucent.com

Also, ~kaeli~ reports that:
There's some even better code that sets more cookie properties like
domain, secure, path, etc here.
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/webmonkeys/j...ipt/cookies.js

4) I wrote a short program for verifying cookies will work on a site.
The cookie code was taken from:
Functions from Using HTML 4, Java 1.1, and JavaScript 1.2:
Complete. Definitive. Invaluble.
by Eric Jim O'Donnell, et al.
and from the Netscape develper's site. Here is my cookie testing
code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<title>Remember by cookie</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Sets cookie values. Expiration date is optional
//
function setCookie(name, value, expire) {
document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value)
+ ((expire == null) ? "" : ("; expires=" + expire.toGMTString()))
}
function getCookie(Name) {
var search = Name + "="
if (document.cookie.length > 0) { // if there are any cookies
offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search)
if (offset != -1) { // if cookie exists
offset += search.length
// set index of beginning of value
end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset)
// set index of end of cookie value
if (end == -1)
end = document.cookie.length
return unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
}
}
}

function deleteCookie(name,path,domain) {
if (getCookie(name)) document.cookie = name + "=" +
( (path) ? ";path=" + path : "") +
( (domain) ? ";domain=" + domain : "") +
";expires=Thu, 01-Jan-70 00:00:01 GMT";
}

function registerCookie(cookieName,cookieValue) {
var today = new Date()
var expires = new Date()
expires.setTime(today.getTime() + 1000*60*60*24*365)
setCookie(cookieName, cookieValue, expires)
}
</script>

<body>
<p>Let's see if we can set then read a cookie
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("when on (document.url) " + document.URL);
document.write("</p>");

var all = "I hope this cookie doesn't crumble.";

document.write("<p>");
document.write("document.cookie before deleteCookie = "
+ document.cookie + "<br><br>");
deleteCookie("mycookietry");
document.write("document.cookie after deleteCookie= "
+ document.cookie + "<br><br>");

registerCookie("mycookietry",all);

document.write("document.cookie after registerCookie = "
+ document.cookie + "<br><br>");

theMessage = getCookie("mycookietry");
document.write("theMessage = " + theMessage + "<br>");
document.write("</p>");
</SCRIPT>
</body>
</html>

[Bert]

"Robert" <rc*******@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:c6**************************@posting.google.c om...

Robert <rc*******@my-deja.com> wrote in message

news:<rc*****************************@news4.west.e arthlink.net>...

In article <10*************@corp.supernews.com>,
"Bert" <be*********@meckcom.net> wrote:

Codes are more difficult than they appear.

Here are my suggestions.

1) Always set the expiration time. IE works better.

2) You may have disabled cookies. In IE, I had to go to the site then
check whether or not cookies were enabled.

3) Maybe your cookie rountines could use improvements.
I suggest using an existing set of cookie routines. The
document.cookie can contain existing cookies and you need to preserve
them. ( Don't know why such routines aren't shipped with the browsers.
)
~kaeli~ has developed some cookie code. You may view it in this
article:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...859-1&selm=MPG
.1af96c2a4f8abc94989dcc%40nntp.lucent.com

Also, ~kaeli~ reports that:
There's some even better code that sets more cookie properties like
domain, secure, path, etc here.
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/webmonkeys/j...ipt/cookies.js

4) I wrote a short program for verifying cookies will work on a site.
The cookie code was taken from:
Functions from Using HTML 4, Java 1.1, and JavaScript 1.2:
Complete. Definitive. Invaluble.
by Eric Jim O'Donnell, et al.
and from the Netscape develper's site. Here is my cookie testing
code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<title>Remember by cookie</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Sets cookie values. Expiration date is optional
//
function setCookie(name, value, expire) {
document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value)
+ ((expire == null) ? "" : ("; expires=" + expire.toGMTString()))
}
function getCookie(Name) {
var search = Name + "="
if (document.cookie.length > 0) { // if there are any cookies
offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search)
if (offset != -1) { // if cookie exists
offset += search.length
// set index of beginning of value
end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset)
// set index of end of cookie value
if (end == -1)
end = document.cookie.length
return unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
}
}
}

function deleteCookie(name,path,domain) {
if (getCookie(name)) document.cookie = name + "=" +
( (path) ? ";path=" + path : "") +
( (domain) ? ";domain=" + domain : "") +
";expires=Thu, 01-Jan-70 00:00:01 GMT";
}

function registerCookie(cookieName,cookieValue) {
var today = new Date()
var expires = new Date()
expires.setTime(today.getTime() + 1000*60*60*24*365)
setCookie(cookieName, cookieValue, expires)
}
</script>

<body>
<p>Let's see if we can set then read a cookie
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("when on (document.url) " + document.URL);
document.write("</p>");

var all = "I hope this cookie doesn't crumble.";

document.write("<p>");
document.write("document.cookie before deleteCookie = "
+ document.cookie + "<br><br>");
deleteCookie("mycookietry");
document.write("document.cookie after deleteCookie= "
+ document.cookie + "<br><br>");

registerCookie("mycookietry",all);

document.write("document.cookie after registerCookie = "
+ document.cookie + "<br><br>");

theMessage = getCookie("mycookietry");
document.write("theMessage = " + theMessage + "<br>");
document.write("</p>");
</SCRIPT>
</body>
</html>

Thanks Robert. Now I am on my next problem.

Bert

[Dr John Stockton]

JRS: In article <10*************@corp.supernews.com>, seen in
news:comp.lang.javascript, Bert <be*********@meckcom.net> posted at Fri,
16 Jul 2004 18:51:29 :

Lines: 131

function registerCookie(cookieName,cookieValue) {
var today = new Date()
var expires = new Date()
expires.setTime(today.getTime() + 1000*60*60*24*365)
setCookie(cookieName, cookieValue, expires)
}
The number 1000*60*60*24 is more economically written 864e5.

I see no need for having today as well as expires.

expires.setMonth(expires.getMonth()+12)

is simpler, and gets to the present time & date a year ahead (if
possible; else reasonable substitute). Note the avoidance of
getYear/getFullYear. If you really want 365 days,

expires.setDate(expires.getDate()+365)

with the same caveat about the time only.

</html>

Thanks Robert. Now I am on my next problem.

Please do not over-quote.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v4.00 IE 4 ©
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