set object into cookie

Question

I am developping a client side web application with jquery

I want to store all visited pages, I use cookie for it

So, I have two element to store:

page URL
page title

I start creation of data in cookie as :

Index.html :

if(!$.cookie("history")){
        var url_history = document.location;
        var title_history = $("html title").text();
        $.cookie("historyURL", url_history);
        $.cookie("historyTITLE", title_history);
    }

anotherPage.html :

var url_history = document.location;
var title_history = $("html title").text();
$.cookie("historyURL", url_history);
$.cookie("historyTITLE", title_history);

Problem is that cookie's new value overwrites the old.

I think I should set an object, not string such as:

var objHistory = [];
objHistory.push({url:document.location, title: $("html title").text()})
$.cookie("history", objHistory);

Now I have another problem:

I can't retrieve My Object from cookie

When I am trying to get my Object from cookie, It shows a string "object" not Object

Is it possible to set an object in cookie?

thank for your help

Please, add comments besides your downvotes. I don't care about the rep, I care about collaboration and knowledge sharing. So, please, explain and comment. — Alberto De Caro, Nov 08 '12 at 14:38

Alberto De Caro · Answer 1 · 2012-11-08T14:49:05.167

5

You can always stringify your object into JSON:

var jsonHistory = JSON.stringify(objHistory);
$.cookie("history", jsonHistory);

Edit

Simple demo (tested in Chrome and Firefox):

        (function(){
            var o = JSON.parse('{"id":1,"value":"code.google.com"}');
            var e = 'Thu Nov 10 2012 15:44:38';
            document.cookie = 'myObj='+ JSON.stringify(o) +';expires=' + e;
        })()

edited Nov 08 '12 at 14:49

answered Nov 08 '12 at 13:53

Alberto De Caro

5,147
9
47
73

Strongly recommend not starting variable names with a capital letter. That's pretty much just for constructor functions. – T.J. Crowder Nov 08 '12 at 13:58
Whene I return on index.html I test : `var objHistory = $.cookie("history")` `for(var i in objHistory){` `console.log('THIS URL : ' + objHistory[i]);` `}` It shows 'Object' :( – Valeriane Nov 08 '12 at 14:05

sainiuc · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-08T14:29:44.453

5

A cookie (having a limited 4K size) is the last place I would attempt to store an array of pages visited. A cookie would be the last storage method I'd attempt to use due to its limitations. If you are in HTML5, why are you not using the localStorage for this purpose?

Tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp

The localStorage handles only STRING key/value pairs. A workaround can be to stringify your object before storing it, and later parse it when you retrieve it:

var testObject = { 'URL': 1, 'TITLE': 2 };
localStorage.setItem('testObject', JSON.stringify(testObject));
var retrievedObject = localStorage.getItem('testObject');
console.log('retrievedObject: ', JSON.parse(retrievedObject));

edited Nov 08 '12 at 14:29

answered Nov 08 '12 at 14:02

sainiuc

1,697
11
13

Is it possible to set an object in localStorage? – Valeriane Nov 08 '12 at 14:04
@Valeri: What does it say [in the specification](http://www.w3.org/TR/webstorage/)? – T.J. Crowder Nov 08 '12 at 14:06
I have edited my answer above to show how to use localStorage. Please upvote/mark as answer to help future users. – sainiuc Nov 08 '12 at 14:35
[Here](http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/11/local-storage-and-how-to-use-it/)'s an article from Smashing Coding – Alberto De Caro Nov 08 '12 at 14:55

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 14 '16 at 09:47

I would recommend not to use cookies to store the type of data you are using, as cookies are basically meant to store very small amount of data like some key, id...

You can use local storage instead as the local storage limit is 5 MB that too is extensible.Also local storage is much more secure than cookies as the data is not being sent to server.

score -1 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

-1

You can store ONLY STRINGS. A very limited type of strings. You need to use some separators to store such values. Look at Allowed characters in cookies which ones you can use.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

1
1

answered Nov 08 '12 at 14:06

Jan Pfeifer

2,854
25
35

set object into cookie

4 Answers4