I was trying to figure out how isset() and empty() related to setcookie() and $_COOKIE[]. But I came upon a road-block on the way.
Here is my test.php
<?php
//initialize cookie
$expiry = time()+60*60*9000;
setcookie('name1', '4', $expiry, '/', '', '', TRUE);
if (isset ($_COOKIE['name1'])) {
echo 'cookievalue ' . $_COOKIE['name1'];
} else {
echo 'cookie value not set';
}
if (!empty ($_COOKIE['name1'])) {
echo 'cookievalue ' . $_COOKIE['name1'];
} else {
echo 'cookie value empty';
}
?>
Here is my test1.php
<?php
if (isset ($_COOKIE['name1'])) {
echo 'cookievalue ' . $_COOKIE['name1'];
} else {
echo 'cookie value not set';
}
if (!empty ($_COOKIE['name1'])) {
echo 'cookievalue ' . $_COOKIE['name1'];
} else {
echo 'cookie value empty';
}
echo 'cookievalue ' . $_COOKIE['name1'];
?>
When I first load test.php, and then test1.php, everything seems to work fine. That is, test1.php is able to read the $_COOKIE[] variable that was set in test.php via setcookie(). (Although, as expected, test.php had to be refreshed once before cookie values were output in test.php.)
However, if I close the browser, and reopen it, and then just run test1.php, I get an "Undefined Index" notice on name1 in $_COOKIE['name1'].
Why can't test1.php pick up the $_COOKIE variable defined before the browser was closed? The cookie should still be stored in the computer. Why can't it pull up the cookie value from it after closing and reopening the browser?
Answering my own question.
Thanks to @Dagon tried it using a different browser. It works in another browser (Firefox). It wasn't working in my Chrome browser (I suspect I have some anti-cookie extension on Chrome that's deleting the cookie -- or something like that).