cookies.md

#cookies nom nom reading this and this and other stuff

###why use cookies

• HTTP is stateless which means it has no way to keep track of user's previos activities. so cookies help create state

##diff kinds of cookies

• session
• persistent
• secure
• httponly
• third-party
• supercookie
• zombie

##more about cookies

• a piece of data sent from a website, stored locally in browser
• one cookie can only store up to 4KB of data
• max of 20 cookies/server or domain allowed
• cookies are sent to server with each HTTP req
• browser returns most specific path or domain first, followed by less specific cookie matches
• EU has their own set of cookie rules

###how to make cookies

• they're really just key: value pairs and look like this (order matters!):

key-value; expiration_date; path; domain;

• can optionally have an expiration date, after which it’s deleted. if no expiration date, the cookie will last until the session or browser is closed
  • date format must be UTC/GMT
• path default is / meaning the cookie is visible to all paths in given domain
• if dont set domain, will default to page that set the cookie

##in ajax requests

• in ajax and synchronous, the request sends the doc's cookies automatically. so if you wanna send a cookie, set it to the doc not the req.

###cookie alternatives

• web storage api
• web sql database api