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Alberto Siurob
Asked: 2020-03-18 13:43:35 +0800 CST 2020-03-18 13:43:35 +0800 CST

Use of cookies vs session in PHP

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I currently have a corporate intranet working with session variables, and it does it very well. Today I will start with a project for the general public and I decided to load the datastore on the front-side with cookies. I have never used them and I am confused. My question is: can I use a cookie to store certain data of a user that came from the database?

For example:

$_SESSION["NOMBRE"] = 'Juan Pérez';
$_SESSION["ID"] = 12345;

This has helped me a lot to create my intranet, but I don't understand if the cookie stores the same data that I need.

php

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The concept is to store persistent data across page loads for a web visitor. Cookies store it directly on the client. Sessions use a cookie as a type of key to associate with data stored on the server.

    Using sessions is preferred because the actual values ​​are hidden from the client and it is handled when the data expires and becomes invalid. If everything was based on cookies, a user (or a hacker) could manipulate your cookie data and then play requests on their site.

    Note: I don't think there is any advantage to using cookies other than simplicity. Look at it this way... Does the user have any reason to know their ID? Normally I would say no, the user has no need for this information. Giving information should be limited on a need to know basis. What if the user changes their cookie to have a different ID, how will your application respond? It is a security risk.

    Source StackOverflow

    Let's see an example as if a cookie could be created with the same data as a session

    We create a cookie

    //Supongamos que...
$nombre = 'Juan Pérez';
$id = '12345';

//Creamos nuestra cookie.
setcookie("nombre",$nombre,strtotime( '+30 days' ),"/",false, false);
setcookie("id",$id,strtotime( '+30 days' ),"/",false, false);

    manual setcookie

    Get cookie

    //Comprobamos si esta definida nuestra cookie y no NULL.
if ( isset($_COOKIE['nombre']) && isset($_COOKIE['id'])) {
    //Obtenemos datos.  
    $nombreCookie = $_COOKIE['nombre'] ?: '';
    $idCookie = $_COOKIE['id'] ?: '';

    echo $nombreCookie;
}

    If you want to destroy a cookie

    //Destruir cookie.
setcookie("nombre",$nombre,1,"/",false, false);
setcookie("id",$id,1,"/",false, false);
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