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How can my website place a cookie on my viewer's computer, and how for my app to read this cookie?

Hi, I'm a Windows software developer (Delphi) and I have an idea to track downloads of my software and also to test pricing... by placing a 'cookie' on the visitor's computer when he lands on my website, and then if the visitor chooses to download my app from my site, for my app to read this cookie. This cookie will basically contain just a simple unique text string to help me with my tracking. Thing is, I don't even know how to use cookies or how to work with them - I basically just know they exist! I need some instruction please on how to setup my website to place a cookie on my visitor's computer, and then how to retrieve/read this cookie.

Thanks!
Shawn

Dave Baldwin

Cookies can be placed in the user's browser either by javascript or by a server side programming language like ASP or PHP. Note that different browsers do not share cookies so if you set it in IE, it will not exist in Firefox. And cookies can only be read by the web site that places them.

shawn857

ASKER

Dang, oh well, so much for the cookie angle. I didn't know they could only be read by browsers... I thought it might be a real readable file that was placed on the users system somewhere that I could open up and read programmatically from my application. Do you have any thoughts Dave, on how I might accomplish this? Basically what I'm looking for is, when someone visits the main page of my website, my website somehow places a small text file in their computer's Windows folder or somewhere like that.

Thanks
Shawn

SOLUTION

Dave Baldwin

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Rob