ASP.NET Cookies

Cookies is a small piece of information stored on the client machine. Its is used to store user preference information like Password, City, SessionId etc on client machines. We need to import namespace called Systen.Web before we use cookie(HttpCookie).

Type of Cookies

• Persistent Cookie - Persistent cookies are permanent cookies.They are stored as a text file in the hard disk of the computer.
• Non-Persistent Cookie - These cookies are also known as temporary cookies or session based cookies.They are active as long as the browser remains active. Once the browser is closed the cookies vanishes automatically.

Create a cookie

In the Asp.Net with help of Response object or HttpCookie we can create a cookie.
Example 1

   HttpCookie info = new HttpCookie("info");
   info["UserFirstName"] = "Soumya";
   info["UserLastName"] = "Das";
   info.Expires.Add(new TimeSpan(0, 1, 0));
   Response.Cookies.Add(info);

Example 2

   Response.Cookies["UserFirstName"].Value = "Annathurai";
   Response.Cookies["UserLastName"].Value = "Black";

Retrieve value from cookie

In the Asp.Net with help of Response object or HttpCookie we can retrieve cookies.
Example 1

   string UserFirstName = Request.Cookies["UserFirstName"].Value;
   string UserLastName =  Request.Cookies["UserLastName"].Value;

Example 2

   HttpCookie reqCookies = Request.Cookies["userInfo"];
   if (reqCookies != null)
   {
       string UserFirstName = reqCookies["UserFirstName"].ToString();
       string UserLastName = reqCookies["UserLastName"].ToString();
   }

Cookie's property

Property	Description
Domain	Which is used to associate cookies to domain.
Secure	We can enable secure cookie to set true(HTTPs).
Value	We can manipulate individual cookie.
Values	We can manipulate cookies with key/value pair.
Expires	Which is used to set expire date for the cookies.

Advantages of Cookie

• Its clear text so user can able to read it.
• We can store user preference information on the client machine.
• Its easy way to maintain.
• Fast accessing.

Disadvantages of Cookie

• If user clear cookie information we can't get it back.
• No security.
• Each request will have cookie information with page.