cookies in PHP

[tornado]

As I am working on this http://www.deonlinecasino.com. I want to maintain cookies on my site. I know that cookies are created as temporary cookies which are store in the browsers memory. When browser is closed, these temporary cookies will be erased. Can anybody help me to know more about cookies in PHP and how to maintain cookies?

[flabbyrabbit]

Ok here I go, ive only just really worked out how to use cookies lately but it seems to be quite simple. The first thing is how long will you need to store the information, will you only need it for that session or will you need to keep it for longer?? If you only need it for that session then sessions should be used instead of cookies. Sessions are lost when the user closes their browser were as cookies are kept for a set time. So which will you need??

Flabby Rabbit

[litebulb1]

If you are going to be using cookies you can just set the life time for the cookies so that they expire.

[bobbyblades]

don't set an expiration date for the cookie if you want it to last for only a browser session, otherwise you set the expire time as a unix timestamp of some future date. Sessions should not be used over cookies they cost much more in terms of overhead unless your storing objects or large chunks of data over multiple pages, or if people don't have cookies turned on.