Expiring cookies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim Kelly
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim Kelly

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration date. The
relevant code is as follows:

HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
Response.AppendCookie(hc);

As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But when I check
its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label control on the ASPX
page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM) is returned every
time. I've researched this extensively online and in MS's documentation and
found nothing addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never expire. I
suspect it has something to do with the session cookie ASP.NET sends to the
client automatically (the one containing ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm
inadvertantly obtaining that cookie's expiration date, which would be "never
expires" because it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent
cookie. But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to refer to my
cookie to me.

Does anyone have any ideas?


Thanks very much,
Jim Kelly
 
Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration
date. The relevant code is as follows:

HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
Response.AppendCookie(hc);

As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But
when I check its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label
control on the ASPX page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001
12:00:00 AM) is returned every time. I've researched this
extensively online and in MS's documentation and found nothing
addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never
expire. I suspect it has something to do with the session cookie
ASP.NET sends to the client automatically (the one containing
ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm inadvertantly obtaining that
cookie's expiration date, which would be "never expires" because
it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent cookie.
But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to
refer to my cookie to me.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Jim,

The browser never sends the cookie's expiration date back to the
server. This isn't generally a problem, since the browser won't send
the cookie to the server if the cookie has expired.

Here's an excellent article about cookies and .Net:

http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AspNetCookies.asp


Hope this helps.

Chris.
 
Chris,

Thanks. It figures that the one article that answers my question in one
sentence is the one that didn't turn up in my search!


Jim

Chris R. Timmons said:
Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration
date. The relevant code is as follows:

HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
Response.AppendCookie(hc);

As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But
when I check its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label
control on the ASPX page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001
12:00:00 AM) is returned every time. I've researched this
extensively online and in MS's documentation and found nothing
addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never
expire. I suspect it has something to do with the session cookie
ASP.NET sends to the client automatically (the one containing
ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm inadvertantly obtaining that
cookie's expiration date, which would be "never expires" because
it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent cookie.
But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to
refer to my cookie to me.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Jim,

The browser never sends the cookie's expiration date back to the
server. This isn't generally a problem, since the browser won't send
the cookie to the server if the cookie has expired.

Here's an excellent article about cookies and .Net:

http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AspNetCookies.asp


Hope this helps.

Chris.
Click to expand...
 
Jim,
I am running into the same problem and did read the article mentioned
below. Still don't see what is going on. The code I am using is:
BECartCookie = new HttpCookie("BECart");
BECartCookie.Value = CartID.ToString();
BECartCookie.Path = "/";
BECartCookie.Expires = dNow.AddHours(48);
Response.Cookies.Set(BECartCookie);
Is there anything wrong with this? Every time I look at the cookie it
returns the "beginning of time" expiration date.
Thanks,
Mike

Chris,

Thanks. It figures that the one article that answers my question in one
sentence is the one that didn't turn up in my search!


Jim

Chris R. Timmons said:
Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration
date. The relevant code is as follows:

HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
Response.AppendCookie(hc);

As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But
when I check its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label
control on the ASPX page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001
12:00:00 AM) is returned every time. I've researched this
extensively online and in MS's documentation and found nothing
addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never
expire. I suspect it has something to do with the session cookie
ASP.NET sends to the client automatically (the one containing
ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm inadvertantly obtaining that
cookie's expiration date, which would be "never expires" because
it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent cookie.
But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to
refer to my cookie to me.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Jim,

The browser never sends the cookie's expiration date back to the
server. This isn't generally a problem, since the browser won't send
the cookie to the server if the cookie has expired.

Here's an excellent article about cookies and .Net:

http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AspNetCookies.asp


Hope this helps.

Chris.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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