PHP setcookie problem.

JoeB-

Hi

I'm trying to save a variable onto the users machine using PHP and cookies.

When I use something like below...

$visitcount=$_cookie["visits"];
if ($visitcount == "") $visitcount=0;
else $visitcount++;

setcookie("visits",$visitcount)
echo "Visit number $visitcount"

This works in that each time the page is refreshed the visitcount goes up.... the problem is that if I then open the page in another browser window the visitcount starts at the beginning again and I have two seperate variables in each browser window...

How can I save variable information to the users computer in such a way as it will be available to all browser windows?

Cheers
Joe

seamus

When you don't specify a expiry time for a cookie, it's known as a session cookie. This means that the cookie is only valid for as long as that browser window is open. Once you open a new browser window, it's a new session and therefore a new cookie.

Technically there's no way to make a cookie "permanent". Though most places keep cookies alive for a year or two. Just call
setcookie("visits", $visitcount, mktime() + (60*60*24*365))
and it will set a cookie that sits on the machine for a year (or until they clear their cookie cache).

JoeB-

thank you seamus, problem solved.