Javascript document.cookie always returns empty string
JavascriptCookiesJavascript Problem Overview
I have this real strange problem with client side javascript setting cookies. I'm developing a little 1 page demo at the moment to use cookies to store some 'preferences'. Please note that I can't use a server side language for this demo or any 3rd party jQuery plugins.
So I've written a javascript object to set a cookie:
var cookie = {
set: function (name,value,exdays) {
var exdate = new Date();
exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
var value = escape(value) + ((exdays==null) ? "" : "; expires="+exdate.toUTCString());
document.cookie=name + "=" + value;
console.log(document.cookie);
}
}
cookie.set('foo','bar',2);
console.log(document.cookie);
It just returns an empty string. I've gone into Chrome console to see if I can do it via directly modifying document.cookie
> document.cookie = "foo=bar";
"foo=bar"
> document.cookie
""
How do you set a cookie via client side javascript?
Edit: I am not in incognito mode and cookies are enabled.
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
HttpOnly cookies cannot be accessed from Javascript and session cookies are usually set as HttpOnly cookies. See also this StackOverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8064318/how-to-read-a-secure-cookie-using-javascript
So... check whether the cookie you want to read has the 'HttpOnly' flag set... If so, you know the culprit. It's not a bug, it's a feature!
Solution 2 - Javascript
You can't set cookies by the look of things if its not running in a web server.
file:///C:/Users/me/Desktop/demo/demo.html
however:
http://localhost/demo/demo.html works.
Solution 3 - Javascript
This worked for me when ran from localhost, running chrome 28.0.1472.0 canary:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>localhost cookie</title>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
console.log(document.cookie);
var myCookie = "mycookie=hellocookie";
document.cookie = myCookie;
</script>
</body>
</html>
Run it in a server, visit the page and look at your cookie store, refresh the page and look at your console.
It did not set a cookie when opened as a file but worked every time when opened from the server.
Solution 4 - Javascript
For usage and docs, see here:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/document.cookie
If you are in Incognito Mode or have cookies disabled, it won't work.
Solution 5 - Javascript
You might have set a wrong path for the cookie.
In my case I'd set the path in the cookie to /foo because the application is normally on address http://example.org/foo.
However, during tests I'd opened the application on the default address http://localhost:3000 which allowed me to create cookies with the path /foo but not read them.
The solution was to test the application on address http://localhost:3000/foo.
Solution 6 - Javascript
-
cookie will not work if you directly open your file, let's say index.html
file:///C:/Users/me/Desktop/index.html
-
however: cookie will work if page (index.html) is opened using a light weight server or local server
http://localhost/demo/demo.html works. or http://127.0.0.1:5500/temp6.html
-
For live sever in VS Code you can use Live Serve by Ritwick Dey
