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Michael Sole

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Access cookie from a subdomain

I wanted to create a cookie in one subdomain and have it read by another. I thought if I set the cookie like this:
setcookie("OpenOffer", $xid, time()+3600,"/","domain.com");

From the domain: subdomain1.domain.com

The I could read it:

$_COOKIE['OpenOffer'];
From www.domain.com but I can't

So I tried using an ajax request where I call subdomain1.domain.com and return the cookie value but that doesn't work either. I would of thought for sure this would of done it. Any help would be greatly appreciated
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Avatar of Dave Baldwin
Dave Baldwin
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Here is my teaching example.  Probably the same idea as what DaveBaldwin suggested.  I do not leave this on my server (for obvious reasons) but you can install it and test with it.  Some adjustment would be needed if it was for a double-top-level domain like .co.uk

<?php // RAY_cookie_example.php
error_reporting(E_ALL);

// RECEIVE FORM INPUT AND SET A COOKIE WITH THE NAME, VALUE AND LIFE FROM THE FORM
// MAN PAGE: http://php.net/manual/en/function.setcookie.php
// TO SEE COOKIES IN FIREFOX, FOLLOW SOMETHING LIKE TOOLS => OPTIONS => PRIVACY => SHOW COOKIES (OR "REMOVE INDIVIDUAL")


// REQUIRED AT PHP 5+
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');


// IF THE FORM HAS BEEN POSTED
if (!empty($_POST))
{
    // TIDY UP THE POST INPUT - CLEAN AND NOT MORE THAN 16 BYTES
    $name = substr(clean_string($_POST["name"]),0,16);
    $data = substr(clean_string($_POST["data"]),0,16);
    $life = clean_number($_POST["life"]);

    // BE SURE WE HAVE USEFUL INFORMATION
    if ( ($name == '') || ($data == '') ) die("MISSING INPUT: PLEASE <a href=\"{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}\">TRY AGAIN</a>");


    // CHOOSE THE COOKIE NAME, VALUE, AND LIFE IN SECONDS
    $cookie_name    = $name;
    $cookie_value   = $data;
    $cookie_life    = $life;


    // CONFIGURE THE COOKIE LIFE
    if ($life == 0)
    {
        // USE THIS TO MAKE COOKIE EXPIRE AT END OF BROWSER LIFE
        $cookie_expires = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        // USE THIS TO MAKE A PERSISTENT COOKIE
        $cookie_expires = time() + $cookie_life;
    }


    // MAKE THE COOKIE AVAILABLE TO ALL DIRECTORY PATHS
    $cookie_path	= DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;


    // MAKE THE COOKIE AVAILABLE TO ALL SUBDOMAINS - DOMAIN NAME STARTS WITH DOT AND OMITS WWW (OR OTHER SUBDOMAINS).
    $x = explode('.', strtolower($_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]));
    $y = count($x);
    if ($y == 1) // MAYBE 'localhost'?
    {
        $cookie_domain = $x[0];
    }
    else // SOMETHING LIKE 'www2.atf70.whitehouse.gov'?
    {
        // USE THE LAST TWO POSITIONS TO MAKE THE HOST DOMAIN
        $cookie_domain = '.' . $x[$y-2] . '.' . $x[$y-1];
    }


    // MAKE THE COOKIE AVAILABLE TO HTTP, NOT JUST HTTPS
    $cookie_secure    = FALSE;


    // HIDE COOKIE FROM JAVASCRIPT (PHP 5.2+)
    $cookie_http      = TRUE;


    // SET THE COOKIE
    if ( setcookie
         ( $cookie_name
         , $cookie_value
         , $cookie_expires
         , $cookie_path
         , $cookie_domain
         , $cookie_secure
         , $cookie_http
         )
       )
    {
        echo PHP_EOL . "<br/>SUCCESS!  THE COOKIE HAS BEEN SET AND WILL BE AVAILABLE TO THE NEXT PAGE LOAD";
    }
    else
    {
        echo PHP_EOL . "<br/>FAILURE!  THE COOKIE WAS NOT SET AS EXPECTED";
    }


    // AT THIS POINT, THE COOKIE HAS BEEN SET, BUT IT IS NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS SCRIPT
    // THE COOKIE WILL NOT BE RETURNED FROM THE CLIENT TO THE SERVER UNTIL THE NEXT HTTP REQUEST
    // THIS IS BECAUSE THE BROWSER SENDS THE COOKIE TO OUR SCRIPT BEFORE OUR SCRIPT STARTS RUNNING
    echo '<pre>';
    echo PHP_EOL . '$_COOKIE CONTAINS '; var_dump($_COOKIE);
    echo PHP_EOL . '$_POST CONTAINS ';   var_dump($_POST);
    echo PHP_EOL . 'THE COOKIE HAS BEEN SET WITH THESE VALUES: ';
    echo PHP_EOL . 'COOKIE NAME:    ' . $cookie_name;
    echo PHP_EOL . 'COOKIE VALUE:   ' . $cookie_value;
    echo PHP_EOL . 'COOKIE EXPIRES: ' . number_format($cookie_expires) . " == " . date('r', $cookie_expires);
    echo PHP_EOL . 'COOKIE PATH:    ' . $cookie_path;
    echo PHP_EOL . 'COOKIE DOMAIN:  ' . $cookie_domain;
    echo PHP_EOL . 'COOKIE SECURE:  '; var_dump($cookie_secure);
    echo           'COOKIE HTTP:    '; var_dump($cookie_http);
    echo "</pre>";
}


// END OF SETTING THE COOKIE - CREATE THE FORM IN HEREDOC NOTATION
$self = $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];
$form = <<<FORM
<pre>
<form method="post">
COOKIE NAME: <input name="name" /> STRING
COOKIE DATA: <input name="data" /> STRING
COOKIE LIFE: <input name="life" /> INTEGER SECONDS
<input type="submit" />
<b>TO SEE THE EXISTING COOKIES <a href="$self">CLICK HERE</a></b>
</form>
</pre>
FORM;
echo $form;


// SHOW THE COOKIE ARRAY, IF ANY
echo '<pre>$_COOKIE CONTAINS '; var_dump($_COOKIE); echo "</pre>";



// UNRELATED FUNCTIONS TO TIDY UP FORM INPUT
function clean_string($string)
{
    return trim(preg_replace('/[^A-Z0-9_]/i', NULL, $string));
}

function clean_number($string)
{
    return trim(preg_replace('/[^0-9]/i',     0,    $string));
}

// ACTIVATE THIS TO SHOW THE SCRIPT CODE
// die( highlight_file(__FILE__, TRUE) );

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