setcookie

#1 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008

Hi,

I am learning PHP, I am trying to set a simple cookie:

<html>
<head>
<title>Cookies</title>
</head>
<body>

<?php setcookie('test', 45, time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>

</body>
</html>

Firefox is returning this error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by
(output started at /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php:7) in /
Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php on line 7

I have googled this and can't find out what I am doing wrong. Any
help you could give me would be much appreciated.

Tim

#2 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008, Tim Daff wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am learning PHP, I am trying to set a simple cookie:
>
> <html>
> <head>
> <title>Cookies</title>
> </head>
> <body>
> <?php setcookie('test', 45,
> time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>
> </body>
> </html>
>
> Firefox is returning this error:
>
> Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output
> started at /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php:7) in
> /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php on line 7
>
> I have googled this and can't find out what I am doing wrong. Any help you
> could give me would be much appreciated.
>
> Tim

setcookie from php.net states the following:

setcookie() defines a cookie to be sent along with the rest of the HTTP
headers. Like other headers, cookies must be sent before any output from
your script (this is a protocol restriction). This requires that you place
calls to this function prior to any output, including <html> and <head>
tags as well as any whitespace

call setcookie before you output ANY THING, even error

hope that helps.
t. hiep

#3 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008

As a dirty trick you can put following line on the top of your script,
it will work
ob_start();

But you should try to know why it is not working, and what exactly
ob_start will impact your application and What is the thing called
"Output Buffering".

Zareef Ahmed

On 3/12/08, Hiep Nguyen <hiep@ee.ucr.edu> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008, Tim Daff wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am learning PHP, I am trying to set a simple cookie:
> >
> > <html>
> > <head>
> > <title>Cookies</title>
> > </head>
> > <body>
> > <?php setcookie('test', 45,
> > time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>
> > </body>
> > </html>
> >
> > Firefox is returning this error:
> >
> > Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by
> (output
> > started at /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php:7) in
> > /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php on line 7
> >
> > I have googled this and can't find out what I am doing wrong. Any help
> you
> > could give me would be much appreciated.
> >
> > Tim
>
>
> setcookie from php.net states the following:
>
> setcookie() defines a cookie to be sent along with the rest of the HTTP
> headers. Like other headers, cookies must be sent before any output from
> your script (this is a protocol restriction). This requires that you place
> calls to this function prior to any output, including <html> and <head>
> tags as well as any whitespace
>
> call setcookie before you output ANY THING, even error
>
> hope that helps.
> t. hiep
>
>
> --
> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>
>

--
Zareef Ahmed
http://www.zareef.net
A PHP Developer in India

#4 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008

> Firefox is returning this error:
>
> Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by
> (output started at /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php:7) in
> /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php on line 7

You must use set cookie() before you send any output to the browser,
including whitespace.

--
Richard Heyes
Employ me:
http://www.phpguru.org/cv

#5 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008

Tim Daff wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am learning PHP, I am trying to set a simple cookie:
>
> <html>
> <head>
> <title>Cookies</title>
> </head>
> <body>
>
> <?php setcookie('test', 45, time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>
>
> </body>
> </html>
>
> Firefox is returning this error:
>
> Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by
> (output started at /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php:7) in
> /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php on line 7
>
> I have googled this and can't find out what I am doing wrong. Any help
> you could give me would be much appreciated.
>
> Tim

<?php setcookie('test', 45, time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Cookies</title>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

Cookies HAVE to be at the top of the page... You output ANYTHING else
and you get the error you wound up getting.

Wolf

#6 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008

Wolf wrote:
>
>
> Tim Daff wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am learning PHP, I am trying to set a simple cookie:
>>
>> <html>
>> <head>
>> <title>Cookies</title>
>> </head>
>> <body>
>> <?php setcookie('test', 45, time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>
>> </body>
>> </html>
>>
>> Firefox is returning this error:
>>
>> Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by
>> (output started at /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php:7) in
>> /Users/Daff/Sites/php_sandbox/cookies.php on line 7
>>
>> I have googled this and can't find out what I am doing wrong. Any
>> help you could give me would be much appreciated.
>>
>> Tim
>
> <?php setcookie('test', 45, time()+(60*60*24*7)); ?>
> <html>
> <head>
> <title>Cookies</title>
> </head>
> <body>
>
>
>
> </body>
> </html>
>
> Cookies HAVE to be at the top of the page... You output ANYTHING else
> and you get the error you wound up getting.
>
> Wolf
>
>

If you're not sure if data has already been sent to the client (I ran
into an included file having a space after >?) you can use
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.headers-sent.php before you call
setcookie();

If nothing else it'll help with diagnosing this error when you run into
it again.

--
Ray Hauge
www.primateapplications.com

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