Expiring cookies

[Jim Kelly]

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration date. The
relevant code is as follows:

HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
Response.AppendCookie(hc);

As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But when I check
its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label control on the ASPX
page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM) is returned every
time. I've researched this extensively online and in MS's documentation and
found nothing addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never expire. I
suspect it has something to do with the session cookie ASP.NET sends to the
client automatically (the one containing ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm
inadvertantly obtaining that cookie's expiration date, which would be "never
expires" because it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent
cookie. But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to refer to my
cookie to me.

Does anyone have any ideas?


Thanks very much,
Jim Kelly

[Chris R. Timmons]

"Jim Kelly" <cryptojim@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:-zednawFyfHWSbeiU-KYuQ@comcast.com:

> Hi,
>
> I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration
> date. The relevant code is as follows:
>
> HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
> hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
> hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
> Response.AppendCookie(hc);
>
> As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But
> when I check its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label
> control on the ASPX page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001
> 12:00:00 AM) is returned every time. I've researched this
> extensively online and in MS's documentation and found nothing
> addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
> expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never
> expire. I suspect it has something to do with the session cookie
> ASP.NET sends to the client automatically (the one containing
> ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm inadvertantly obtaining that
> cookie's expiration date, which would be "never expires" because
> it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent cookie.
> But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
> Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to
> refer to my cookie to me.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas?

Jim,

The browser never sends the cookie's expiration date back to the
server. This isn't generally a problem, since the browser won't send
the cookie to the server if the cookie has expired.

Here's an excellent article about cookies and .Net:

[url]http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AspNetCookies.asp[/url]


Hope this helps.

Chris.
-------------
C.R. Timmons Consulting, Inc.
[url]http://www.crtimmonsinc.com/[/url]

[Jim Kelly]

Chris,

Thanks. It figures that the one article that answers my question in one
sentence is the one that didn't turn up in my search!


Jim

"Chris R. Timmons" <crtimmons@X_NOSPAM_Xcrtimmonsinc.com> wrote in message
news:Xns93CB3E990F88Fcrtimmonscrtimmonsin@207.46.2 48.16...

> "Jim Kelly" <cryptojim@yahoo.com> wrote in
> news:-zednawFyfHWSbeiU-KYuQ@comcast.com:
>

> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration
> > date. The relevant code is as follows:
> >
> > HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
> > hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
> > hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
> > Response.AppendCookie(hc);
> >
> > As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But
> > when I check its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label
> > control on the ASPX page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001
> > 12:00:00 AM) is returned every time. I've researched this
> > extensively online and in MS's documentation and found nothing
> > addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
> > expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never
> > expire. I suspect it has something to do with the session cookie
> > ASP.NET sends to the client automatically (the one containing
> > ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm inadvertantly obtaining that
> > cookie's expiration date, which would be "never expires" because
> > it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent cookie.
> > But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
> > Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to
> > refer to my cookie to me.
> >
> > Does anyone have any ideas?

>
> Jim,
>
> The browser never sends the cookie's expiration date back to the
> server. This isn't generally a problem, since the browser won't send
> the cookie to the server if the cookie has expired.
>
> Here's an excellent article about cookies and .Net:
>
> [url]http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AspNetCookies.asp[/url]
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Chris.
> -------------
> C.R. Timmons Consulting, Inc.
> [url]http://www.crtimmonsinc.com/[/url]

[someone]

Jim,
I am running into the same problem and did read the article mentioned
below. Still don't see what is going on. The code I am using is:
BECartCookie = new HttpCookie("BECart");
BECartCookie.Value = CartID.ToString();
BECartCookie.Path = "/";
BECartCookie.Expires = dNow.AddHours(48);
Response.Cookies.Set(BECartCookie);
Is there anything wrong with this? Every time I look at the cookie it
returns the "beginning of time" expiration date.
Thanks,
Mike

On Sat, 2 Aug 2003 08:51:54 -0600, "Jim Kelly" <cryptojim@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Chris,
>
>Thanks. It figures that the one article that answers my question in one
>sentence is the one that didn't turn up in my search!
>
>
>Jim
>
>"Chris R. Timmons" <crtimmons@X_NOSPAM_Xcrtimmonsinc.com> wrote in message
>news:Xns93CB3E990F88Fcrtimmonscrtimmonsin@207.46. 248.16...

>> "Jim Kelly" <cryptojim@yahoo.com> wrote in
>> news:-zednawFyfHWSbeiU-KYuQ@comcast.com:
>>

>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I'm having a strange problem with setting a cookie's expiration
>> > date. The relevant code is as follows:
>> >
>> > HttpCookie hc = new HttpCookie("MyCookie");
>> > hc.Values.Add("UserName", tbUserName.Text);
>> > hc.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
>> > Response.AppendCookie(hc);
>> >
>> > As you can see it's just a simple cookie storing one value. But
>> > when I check its expiration date (by writing it to an ASP:Label
>> > control on the ASPX page), DateTime.MinValue (i.e., 1/1/0001
>> > 12:00:00 AM) is returned every time. I've researched this
>> > extensively online and in MS's documentation and found nothing
>> > addressing this problem very clearly. I have read that an
>> > expiration date of DateTime.MinValue means the cookie will never
>> > expire. I suspect it has something to do with the session cookie
>> > ASP.NET sends to the client automatically (the one containing
>> > ASP.NET_SessionId); maybe I'm inadvertantly obtaining that
>> > cookie's expiration date, which would be "never expires" because
>> > it's just a session cookie, as opposed to my persistent cookie.
>> > But the code I use to obtain the expiration date is
>> > Request.Cookies["MyCookie"].Expires.ToString(), which seems to
>> > refer to my cookie to me.
>> >
>> > Does anyone have any ideas?

>>
>> Jim,
>>
>> The browser never sends the cookie's expiration date back to the
>> server. This isn't generally a problem, since the browser won't send
>> the cookie to the server if the cookie has expired.
>>
>> Here's an excellent article about cookies and .Net:
>>
>> [url]http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AspNetCookies.asp[/url]
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Chris.
>> -------------
>> C.R. Timmons Consulting, Inc.
>> [url]http://www.crtimmonsinc.com/[/url]

>