How to set and get cookies in Django?

Question

I have a web site which shows different content based on a location the visitor chooses. e.g: User enters in 55812 as the zip. I know what city and area lat/long. that is and give them their content pertinent to that area. My question is how can I store this in a cookie so that when they return they are not required to always enter their zip code?

I see it as follows:

1. Set persistent cookie based on their area.
2. When they return read cookie, grab zipcode.
3. Return content based on the zip code in their cookie.

I can't seem to find any solid information on setting a cookie. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

UPDATE : check Peter's answer below for a builtin solution :

This is a helper to set a persistent cookie:

import datetime

def set_cookie(response, key, value, days_expire=7):
    if days_expire is None:
        max_age = 365 * 24 * 60 * 60  # one year
    else:
        max_age = days_expire * 24 * 60 * 60
    expires = datetime.datetime.strftime(
        datetime.datetime.utcnow() + datetime.timedelta(seconds=max_age),
        "%a, %d-%b-%Y %H:%M:%S GMT",
    )
    response.set_cookie(
        key,
        value,
        max_age=max_age,
        expires=expires,
        domain=settings.SESSION_COOKIE_DOMAIN,
        secure=settings.SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE or None,
    )

Use the following code before sending a response.

def view(request):
    response = HttpResponse("hello")
    set_cookie(response, 'name', 'jujule')
    return response

UPDATE : check Peter's answer below for a builtin solution :