Cookie not setted or not working the first time

Question

On every page I set a cookie to color the header button corresponding to that session. The problem is that the first time I open a page in a different section, the cookie remains the old, and the colored button too. Then if I click another time the same button, the cookie is correctly setted. Why?

Here my code:

<?php
include $_SERVER['PERCORSO_GLOBALS'];

$pagelevel = '1';
require_once ROOT_DIR.'/administrator/flock/session_users.php';

setcookie('lng', 'it');
?>

<head>
    ...
</head>

<body>
<?php
$currentpage = basename(__FILE__);

function colorButtonHeader($section){
    if(isset($_COOKIE['lng'])){
        if($_COOKIE['lng'] == $section){
            echo "buttonon";
        }
    }else{
        echo 'Error';
        die($refresh);
    }
}
?>

<div id="button"> 
  <ul>
    <li><a href=<?=$index_admin?>><span class="<?php colorButtonHeader('home') ?>">HOME</span></a></li>
    <li><a href=<?=$italiano?>><span class="<?php colorButtonHeader('it') ?>">ITALIANO</span></a></li>
    <li><a href=<?=$tedesco?>><span class="<?php colorButtonHeader('de') ?>">DEUTSCH</span></a></li>
    <li><a href=<?=$francese?>><span class="<?php colorButtonHeader('fr') ?>">FRANÇAIS</span></a></li>
  </ul> 
</div> 


?>

<div id="content">

     ...

</div>
</body>
</html>

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 03 '13 at 12:46

3

Read the documentation:

Once the cookies have been set, they can be accessed on the next page load with the $_COOKIE or $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS arrays. Note, superglobals such as $_COOKIE became available in PHP 4.1.0. Cookie values also exist in $_REQUEST.

When you use setcookie(), you're setting a cookie, but the $_COOKIE array contains only existing cookies (it's created on the page load).

Do this instead:

setcookie('lng', 'it');
$_COOKIE["lng"] = "it";

or simply redirect to a page itself (header("Location: ".$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);) when the cookie is set for the first time.

answered Jun 03 '13 at 12:46

Vedran Šego

3,553
3
27
40

This is a solution but I'm not sure it's the finest... `header("Location: ".$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"])`. I should also redirect only one time, otherwise I create a loop. – Perocat Jun 03 '13 at 12:51
@Perocat As I said: "when the cookie is set for the first time", i.e., `if (!isset($_COOKIE["lng"]))...`. – Vedran Šego Jun 03 '13 at 12:56
This is not working. If I set the cookie for the "en" section, then I switch to the "de" section. The cookie is setted, but not the right cookie. So the page won't refresh, and the wrong button will be colored! – Perocat Jun 03 '13 at 14:37
1

@Perocat So, why not changing this through a GET request? You call it by `index.php?lang=it` and in `index.php` you just put `if (isset($_GET["lang"])) { setcookie('lng', 'it'); (header("Location: ".$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]); exit(0); }`. – Vedran Šego Jun 03 '13 at 14:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

Cookie is set in client machine so you cannot set and check simultaneously from server,use JavaScript instead.

you can use this js function Taken from this post

function readCookie(name) {
  var nameEQ = name + "=";
  var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
  for(var i=0;i < ca.length;i++) {
      var c = ca[i];
      while (c.charAt(0)==' ') c = c.substring(1,c.length);
       if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length,c.length);
    }
  return null;
}

function colorButtonHeader(selected){
   if(readCookie('lng') == selected ){
         alert('cookie is set ');
     }else{
           alert('Wrong language');
        }
}

Can you take me an example with javascript? – Perocat Jun 03 '13 at 12:48 — Perocat, Jun 03 '13 at 12:48

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 03 '13 at 12:54

0

Just simply reload the page each time You set Your cookies.

 setcookie("Cookiename", $value, time()+1800, "/", $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'], FALSE, TRUE);
 header('Location:'.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);

answered Jun 03 '13 at 12:54

Spooky

1,235
15
17

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 05 '13 at 13:36

I find this solution, which seems to be the fastest to improve:

function colorButtonHeader($section){
    if(isset($_COOKIE['lng'])){
        if($_COOKIE['lng'] == $section){
            echo "buttonon";
            setcookie('lng', '', time()-3600);
        }
    }else{
        header("Location: ".$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
        // header("Location: ".$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);

    }
}

Destroy the cookie each time after using it. So on every page load the cookie is not ready to use. This means the page reload, but only once because then the cookie is avaiable. It will be used and the destroied again.

EDIT

If you pass parameters through the URL, then when you use:

header("Location: ".$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);

those parameters are getting lost. So it's better to use:

header("Location: ".$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);

hello there! and how i can do this in JavaScript? Because im setting the cookie by javascript, and its not working on the first time! — Kika_Fortez, Mar 16 '17 at 12:19

Cookie not setted or not working the first time

4 Answers4

Linked

Related