multi-dimensional array in php cookie

You might want to look at serialize() to convert the data into something that can be stored in a cookie.

Best, ~Ray

Your code looks syntactically correct. Can you post a more complete block of code, showing how the snippet above is used?

Actually, delete/disregard my earlier post.  This is a quote from the PHP site:

Cookies names can be set as array names and will be available to your PHP scripts as arrays but separate cookies are stored on the users system. Consider explode() to set one cookie with multiple names and values. It is not recommended to use serialize() for this purpose, because it can result in security holes.

Best regards, ~Ray

#get the cart contents
$cart = $_COOKIE["cart"];
print "Opening Cart Contents:";
print_r($checkcart);
print "<br><Br><Br> ";

#pretend that i'm adding a product...
$aOrder = array(
"strName"=>"hello product 1",
"strColor"=>"red",
"nQty"=>"1");

$cart[] = $aOrder;


# this accuratly shows the above array.
print_r($cart);


# here i'm setting my cart to the cookie...
setcookie("cart",$cart,time()+3600,"/");


#what's in my cart?
$checkcart = $_COOKIE["cart"];

print "<br><Br><Br> New Cart:";

# returns nothings???????
print_r($checkcart);

Updated data in $_COOKIE is not available until the next page load. Does your $_COOKIE data look right if you reload your page?

http://us3.php.net/setcookie

Cookies are ONLY available to the scripts that run AFTER they have been set.  In other words, the $_COOKIE array is populated once at the start of your script.  You can set more cookies, but they are not available in $_COOKIE until you close out your script and start a new script.

I have never tried it, but what do you suppose would happen if you did this...

It might give you an easy work-around, but it does not seem like good code design and should not be part of your long-term solution.

HTH, ~Ray

$_COOKIE["testData"] = "Hello World!";
var_dump($_COOKIE);

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Yes, to the "they are only available at reload" yet, for some reason even if you reload, they are not available. The array they prints out is always the same as per my modded code below. So every time the page reloads it is supposed to append another item to the array and then that should be available in the cookie....

It always just sets one item.

#get the cart contents
$cart = $_COOKIE["cart"];
print "Opening Cart Contents:";
print_r($cart);
print "<br><Br><Br> ";

#pretend that i'm adding a product...
$aOrder = array(
"strName"=>"hello product 1",
"strColor"=>"red",
"nQty"=>"1");

$cart[] = $aOrder;


# this accuratly shows the above array.
print_r($cart);


# here i'm setting my cart to the cookie...
setcookie("cart",$cart,time()+3600,"/");



print "<br><Br><Br> New Cart:";

# returns same array as above even after refresh???????
print_r($cart);

I think we would need to have the whole script to understand what is going on.  Please post that in the code snippet.

You cannot set a cookie if you have already sent any data, including whitespace, to the browser.

Standing by, ~Ray

the above was the whole script... i've modified it to not print out the text until after the cookie... i've also included the html form i'm using to submit the product information now...

<form method="post" action="test.php">
	Name: <input type="text" id="" name="strName"/><Br/>
	Color: <input type="text" id="" name="strColor"/><Br/>
	Qty <input type="text" id="" name="nQty"/><Br/>
	<input type="submit" />
  </form>
 
 
 
<?
 
#get the cart contents
$cart = $_COOKIE["cart"];
 
#pretend that i'm adding a product... 
$aOrder = array(
"strName"=>"$strName",
"strColor"=>"$strColor",
"nQty"=>"$nQty");
 
$cart[] = $aOrder;
 
# here i'm setting my cart to the cookie...
setcookie("cart",$cart,time()+3600,"/");
 
# returns same array as above even after refresh???????
print_r($cart);
 
?>
<a href="additem.html">Add/Append Another Item To Cart</a>

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Thanks, I'll run that and see what I can find.  Back in a moment, ~Ray

While I am looking at this, please read the man page here.
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.setcookie.php

There may be a way around it, but the design appears to be flawed.

Output contains this...  I put some whitespace around the code I changed in your script.

Warning: setcookie() expects parameter 2 to be string, array given in /home/websitet/public_html/RAY_temp_phenixfilms.php on line 27

SETCOOKIE FAILED

<form method="post" action="test.php">
        Name: <input type="text" id="" name="strName"/><Br/>
        Color: <input type="text" id="" name="strColor"/><Br/>
        Qty <input type="text" id="" name="nQty"/><Br/>
        <input type="submit" />
  </form>
 
 
 
<?php
 
 
 
// MAKE SURE WE SEE ERRORS
error_reporting(E_ALL);
 
 
 
 
 
 
#get the cart contents
$cart = $_COOKIE["cart"];
 
#pretend that i'm adding a product...
$aOrder = array(
"strName"=>"$strName",
"strColor"=>"$strColor",
"nQty"=>"$nQty");
 
$cart[] = $aOrder;
 
# here i'm setting my cart to the cookie...
 
 
 
 
 
// TEST TO SEE IF THE setcookie() FUNCTION WORKED
if (!setcookie("cart",$cart,time()+3600,"/"))
{
	echo "<br/>SETCOOKIE FAILED \n";
}
 
 
 
 
# returns same array as above even after refresh???????
print_r($cart);
 
?>
<a href="additem.html">Add/Append Another Item To Cart</a>

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As I'm thinking about this, I can think of two ways to do what you want.  One is to ignore the warning from PHP and use serialize() to make a string.  The other is to store the array (serialized) into a data base table of field type=TEXT and store a key set to md5(serialize($cart)).  Use the MD5 key as the cookie value.  When you retrieve the cookie, go to the data base and retrieve the serialized array, then unserialize it and carry forth.

HTH, ~Ray

So I can't put an array into the cookie??

Could I not save the serialized value into the cookie?

Notwithstanding that "piranha" is a bit of a prick, there may be some helpful information on this page:
http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=10346979

I think the central issue with holding cart data in the session instead of the data base goes to whether a client should be allowed to put something in his cart, close the browser, come back later and find the cart still has his item(s).  Most carts seem to be able to remember what I'm shopping for, and that means they would be using a persistent stateful element, such as a data base, to store my cart.