Class Cookie
- All Implemented Interfaces:
Serializable
,Cloneable
Cookies are named, and have a single value. They may have optional attributes, including a comment presented to the user, path and domain qualifiers for which hosts see the cookie, a maximum age, and a version. Current web browsers often have bugs in how they treat those attributes, so interoperability can be improved by not relying on them heavily.
Cookies are assigned by servers, using fields added to HTTP response headers. Cookies are passed back to those servers using fields added to HTTP request headers. Several cookies with the same name can be returned; they have different path attributes, but those attributes will not be visible when using "old format" cookies.
Cookies affect the caching of the web pages used to set their values. At this time, none of the sophisticated HTTP/1.1 cache control models are supported. Standard HTTP/1.0 caches will not cache pages which contain cookies created by this class.
Cookies are being standardized by the IETF. This class supports the original Cookie specification (from Netscape Communications Corp.) as well as the updated RFC 2109 specification.
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Field Summary
FieldsModifier and TypeFieldDescriptionprotected String
Describes the cookie's use.protected String
Domain that sees cookie.protected Date
Cookie expires after this date.protected String
The name of the cookie.protected String
URLs that see the cookie.protected boolean
Use SSL.protected String
The cookie value.protected int
If Version=1 it means RFC 2109++ style cookies. -
Constructor Summary
Constructors -
Method Summary
Modifier and TypeMethodDescriptionclone()
Returns a copy of this object.Returns the comment describing the purpose of this cookie, or null if no such comment has been defined.Returns the domain of this cookie.Returns the expiry date of the cookie.getName()
Returns the name of the cookie.getPath()
Returns the prefix of all URLs for which this cookie is targetted.boolean
Returns the value of the 'secure' flag.getValue()
Returns the value of the cookie.int
Returns the version of the cookie.void
setComment
(String purpose) If a user agent (web browser) presents this cookie to a user, the cookie's purpose will be described using this comment.void
This cookie should be presented only to hosts satisfying this domain name pattern.void
setExpiryDate
(Date expiry) Sets the expiry date of the cookie.void
This cookie should be presented only with requests beginning with this URL.void
setSecure
(boolean flag) Indicates to the user agent that the cookie should only be sent using a secure protocol (https).void
Sets the value of the cookie.void
setVersion
(int version) Sets the version of the cookie protocol used when this cookie saves itself.toString()
Convert this cookie into a user friendly string.
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Field Details
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mName
The name of the cookie. -
mValue
The cookie value. -
mComment
Describes the cookie's use. -
mDomain
Domain that sees cookie. -
mExpiry
Cookie expires after this date. -
mPath
URLs that see the cookie. -
mSecure
protected boolean mSecureUse SSL. -
mVersion
protected int mVersionIf Version=1 it means RFC 2109++ style cookies.
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Constructor Details
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Cookie
Defines a cookie with an initial name/value pair. The name must be an HTTP/1.1 "token" value; alphanumeric ASCII strings work. Names starting with a "$" character are reserved by RFC 2109. The path for the cookie is set to the root ("/") and there is no expiry time set.- Parameters:
name
- The name of the cookie.value
- The value of the cookie.- Throws:
IllegalArgumentException
- if the cookie name is not an HTTP/1.1 "token", or if it is one of the tokens reserved for use by the cookie protocol
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Method Details
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setComment
If a user agent (web browser) presents this cookie to a user, the cookie's purpose will be described using this comment. This is not supported by version zero cookies.- Parameters:
purpose
- The cookie comment.- See Also:
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getComment
Returns the comment describing the purpose of this cookie, or null if no such comment has been defined.- Returns:
- The cookie comment, or
null
if none. - See Also:
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setDomain
This cookie should be presented only to hosts satisfying this domain name pattern. Read RFC 2109 for specific details of the syntax. Briefly, a domain name name begins with a dot (".foo.com") and means that hosts in that DNS zone ("www.foo.com", but not "a.b.foo.com") should see the cookie. By default, cookies are only returned to the host which saved them.- Parameters:
pattern
- The domain name pattern. The pattern is converted to lower case to accommodate less capable browsers.- See Also:
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getDomain
Returns the domain of this cookie.- Returns:
- The cookie domain (the base URL name it applies to).
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setExpiryDate
Sets the expiry date of the cookie. The cookie will expire after the date specified. A null value indicates the default behaviour: the cookie is not stored persistently, and will be deleted when the user agent (web browser) exits.- Parameters:
expiry
- The expiry date for this cookie, ornull
if the cookie is persistent.- See Also:
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getExpiryDate
Returns the expiry date of the cookie. If none was specified, null is returned, indicating the default behaviour described with setExpiryDate.- Returns:
- The cookie expiry date, or
null
if it is persistent. - See Also:
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setPath
This cookie should be presented only with requests beginning with this URL. Read RFC 2109 for a specification of the default behaviour. Basically, URLs in the same "directory" as the one which set the cookie, and in subdirectories, can all see the cookie unless a different path is set.- Parameters:
uri
- The exclusion prefix for the cookie.- See Also:
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getPath
Returns the prefix of all URLs for which this cookie is targetted.- Returns:
- The cookie path (or "/" if no specific path is specified).
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setSecure
public void setSecure(boolean flag) Indicates to the user agent that the cookie should only be sent using a secure protocol (https). This should only be set when the cookie's originating server used a secure protocol to set the cookie's value.- Parameters:
flag
- Usetrue
if the cookie is to be sent using secure protocols,false
otherwise.- See Also:
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getSecure
public boolean getSecure()Returns the value of the 'secure' flag.- Returns:
- The
true
if this cookie should only be sent using a secure protocol,false
otherwise. - See Also:
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getName
Returns the name of the cookie. This name may not be changed after the cookie is created.- Returns:
- The name of the cookie.
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setValue
Sets the value of the cookie. BASE64 encoding is suggested for use with binary values.With version zero cookies, you need to be careful about the kinds of values you use. Values with various special characters (whitespace, brackets and parentheses, the equals sign, comma, double quote, slashes, question marks, the "at" sign, colon, and semicolon) should be avoided. Empty values may not behave the same way on all browsers.
- Parameters:
newValue
- The new value for the cookie.- See Also:
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getValue
Returns the value of the cookie.- Returns:
- The cookie value.
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getVersion
public int getVersion()Returns the version of the cookie. Version 1 complies with RFC 2109, version 0 indicates the original version, as specified by Netscape. Newly constructed cookies use version 0 by default, to maximize interoperability. Cookies provided by a user agent will identify the cookie version used by the browser.- Returns:
- The cookie version.
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setVersion
public void setVersion(int version) Sets the version of the cookie protocol used when this cookie saves itself. Since the IETF standards are still being finalized, consider version 1 as experimental; do not use it (yet) on production sites.- Parameters:
version
- The version of the cookie, either 0 or 1.- See Also:
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clone
Returns a copy of this object. -
toString
Convert this cookie into a user friendly string.
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