Content


        Request Object
 Request.Cookies Collection
  
        Syntax:
  
        Parameters:
  
        Remarks:
  Examples:

Request Object

Another function of Request object is the retrieving of HTTP client variables from the client.

Request.Cookies Collection

Request.Cookies Collection retrieves the the values of cookies which is sent in the HTTP request.

Syntax:

Request.Cookies(cookie)[(key)|.attribute]

Or in an ASP file. Imply

<% Request.Cookies(cookie)[(key)|.attribute] %>

Parameters:

The parameter "cookie" is the name of the cookie in the Cookies collection to be retrieved. The data type of "cookie" is string and is enclosed by quotation marks (" ").

key

The optional parameter "key" is the name of the key of the parameter "cookie" to be retrieved. If the "key" is specifed, "cookie" is a dictionary and the retrieved is the value of the specified "key" from the dictionary "cookie The data type of "key" is string and is enclosed by quotation marks (" ").

attribute

The parameter "attribute" is the optional information of the parameter "cookie" with delimeter ".". The values of attribute is

attribute value	Description
HasKeys	Read-only. To specify whether the cookie contains keys.

Remarks:

Cookies are transmitted as clear text in the HTTP header. Cookies are not suitable to store important data, such as login name and passwords. Besides, Cookies collection are only strings contained in an request headers. The values of Cookies collection can also be generated by any user. Therefore Cookie data in the HTTP header is not a secure way to identify a user. And header data or user input should be encoded or be validated before using.

The Cookies Collection is indexed by the names of the parameter "cookies" and its parameter "key" in the request Header. With the Request.Cookies Collection, the value of cookie can be retrieved by name or key. The value of a cookie can be retrieved by its "cookie" name. The value of the "key" of a "cookie dictionary can be retrieved by including the parameter "key" to the parameter "cookie".

For cookie without key, the Request.Cookies(cookie) will return the value of "cookie". For cookie with key, the Request.Cookies(cookie) will return as a single query string with all of the keys.

If no cookie is specified, the Request.Cookies() will return as a single query string with the whole cookies collection.

The parameter "attribute" with value "HasKeys" is used to determine whether the specified cookie is a cookie dictionary or a cookie with key.

If two cookies of the same name are stored with different path attribute, for example. "/" and "/a", the HTTP request, "/a/ab/cookie.asp" will sent both cookies to the web server, but the Request.Cookiew would only returen the value with the deeper path structure, i.e. "/a"

Since the multiple values of cookie dictionary or cookies collection is in the form of an collection, the values of the keys of a cookie dictionary or the values of the cookie elements of a cookies collection should be retrieved using a for each element loop in order to get the name of the element.

Examples:

Response.Cookies with "cookienamea and (key1 = cvalue1 and key2 = cvalue2)" and then redefine "cookienameb = cookievalue"

ASP script command:

<% Response.Cookies("cookienamea")("key1") = "cvalue1" %>
<% Response.Cookies("cookienamea")("key2") = "cvalue2" %>
<% Response.Cookies("cookienameb") = "cookievalue" %>

HTTP header response::

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.1
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:19:08 GMT
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Content-Length: 0
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: cookienamea=key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1; path=/
Set-Cookie: cookienameb=cookievalue; path=/
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDPPPP=PPPPPPPP; path=/
Cache-control: private
With no cookie specified in Request.Cookies

ASP script command:

<%= Request.Cookies & " " %>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
cookienamea=key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1;cookienameb=cookievalue 

HTML web page ouput:

cookienamea=key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1;cookienameb=cookievalue
With value "cookienamea" specified in Request.Cookies

ASP script command:

<%= Request.Cookies("cookienamea") & " " %>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1 

HTML web page ouput:

key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1
With value "cookienameb" specified in Request.Cookies

ASP script command:

<%= Request.Cookies("cookienameb") & " " %>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
cookievalue 

HTML web page ouput:

cookievalue
Check with HasKeys

ASP script command:

<%= Request.Cookies("cookienamea").HasKeys & " " %>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
True 

HTML web page ouput:

True
Check with HasKeys

ASP script command:

<%= Request.Cookies("cookienameb").HasKeys & " " %>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
False 

HTML web page ouput:

False
Loop for all cookie elements in the cookies collection by item

ASP script command:

<%
For Each item in Request.Cookies
Response.Write item & ": "& Request.Cookies(item) & " "
Next
%>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
cookienameb: cookievalue 
cookienamea: key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1 

HTML web page ouput:

cookienameb: cookievalue
cookienamea: key2=cvalue2&key1=cvalue1
Loop for all keys in dictionary cookie by item

ASP script command:

<%
For Each item in Request.Cookies("cookienamea")
Response.Write item & ": "& Request.Cookies("cookienamea")(item) & " "
Next
%>

HTTP response output (Buffered):
key2: cvalue2 
key1: cvalue1 

HTML web page ouput:

key2: cvalue2
key1: cvalue1

©sideway

ID: 120200019 Last Updated: 2/7/2012 Revision: 0 Ref:

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Response Object, , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms525405(v=vs.90).aspx
Request Object, , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524948(v=vs.90).aspx
Server Object (IIS), , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms525541(v=vs.90).aspx
Application Object (IIS), , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms525360(v=vs.90).aspx
Session Object (IIS), , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524319(8v=vs.90).aspx
ASPError Object, , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524942(v=vs.90).aspx
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