Storing multiple ENTERED values in a cookie

I have a page that has a fair number of (PHP) session variables created. I want to save these session variables in a cookie so that I can return to those same variables at a later date. How can I best do this given the current UI for the Cookies Toolkit? The "Entered Value" option appears to be good for only a single value (without an associated name to make a name/value pair).

Murray

You should try this with the server side cookies, you would want to add in a set cookie server behavior for each of the session variables that you have on the page. This should create the individual cookies based on the session variable values. You could then load these back into the session variables with the set session value server behaviors, one for each cookie.

Eric:

Thanks! I have a much better way - discovered in the meantime! It involves the use of the serialize() and unserialize() PHP commands, which seem ideal for this kind of use!

I serialize the ENTIRE $_SESSION array, and pass it to the cookie as a single entered value, e.g.

<?php $foo=serialize($_SESSION); ?>

I then use <?php echo $foo; ?> as the cookie's value in the behavior.

To read this value, I can use this -

<?php $_SESSION=unserialize('cookiename'); ?>

and I'm back where I started with the session variables all set up!

This involves only a single cookie, rather than the multiple ones you suggested. With a fair number of session variables, creating individual cookies for each becomes tedious!

Just an additional note. I have found that you need to encode the data before writing and after reading so that the serialize steps work properly, e.g.,

base64_encode(serialize(...))

and

unserialize(base64_decode(...))

Thanks for posting back about the encoding of the serialized session array. I have used the serialize function like this in the past with good results. It will also be harder for anyone to pick through the values in the cookie if it is serialized like this. Good work, I'm bookmarking this one for future reference.

I have responded to your post in this other thread. Please do not keep posting in multiple threads and stick to this one:
showthread.php?t=12072