Cookies.js

Cookies.js is a small client-side javascript library that makes managing cookies easy. In addition to its simple API, Cookies.js will automatically parse a JSON encoded string value back into its native data type when accessed, and cache the result. For users of AMD loaders, Cookies.js will define itself. For users of CommonJS, Cookies.js will export itself. Otherwise a global variable will be created.

Features

• Automatically JSON encodes/decodes cookie values.
• Caches cookie values, making sequential reads faster.
• Supports AMD loaders.
• Support CommonJS (including npm, browserify etc).
• Cross browser.
• Lightweight (less than 1 KB, minified and gzipped).

Browser Compatibility

The following browsers have passed all of the Cookies.js unit tests:

• Chrome
• Firefox 3+
• Safari 4+
• Opera 10+
• Internet Explorer 6+

Dependencies

For modern browsers, Cookies.js has no dependencies. For older browsers, the JSON.parse and JSON.stringify functions must be shimmed. A shim is not required for the following major browser versions:

• Chrome 3+
• Firefox 3.1+
• Safari 4+
• Opera 10.5+
• Internet Explorer 8+

It is recommended to use Douglas Crockford's json2.js or Kit Cambridge's json3.js library for a JSON shim.

A Note About Encoding

Cookies.js URI encodes cookie keys and values, and expects cookie keys to be URI encoded when accessing a cookie. In addition, before the cookie value is URI encoded, it is first JSON encoded via JSON.stringify. Keep this in mind when working with cookies on the server side.

By URI encoding the cookie key, more types of characters can be used. However, it can be tricky to deal with this on the server side. For example, when using encodeURIComponent, escaped sequences are capitalized (e.g., %3A), but when using C#'s HttpUtility.UrlEncode function, escaped sequences are lower cased (e.g., %3a). These are treated as two separate cookie keys. Due to complications like this, it is recomended not to use special characters in cookie keys.

API Reference

Methods

Cookies.set(key, value [, options])

Alias: Cookies(key, value [, options])

Sets a cookie in the document. If the cookie does not already exist, it will be created.

Arguments:

key: A string value of the cookie key to set
value: Any type that can be encoded in a JSON string (via JSON.stringify)
options: An object containing additional parameters about the cookie (discussed below)

Returns:

The Cookies object is returned to support chaining.

The 'options' Object:

path: A string value of the path of the cookie
domain: A string value of the domain of the cookie
expires: A number (of seconds), a date parsable string, or a Date object of when the cookie will expire
secure: A boolean value of whether or not the cookie should only be available over SSL

If any property is left undefined, the browser's default value will be used instead. A default value for any property may be set in the Cookies.defaults object.

Why use 'expires' instead of 'max-age' (or why not both)?
Internet Explorer 6 - 8 do not support 'max-age', so Cookies.js always uses 'expires' internally. However, Cookies.js simplifies things by allowing the options.expires property to be used in the same way as 'max-age' (by setting options.expires to the number of seconds the cookie should exist for).

Example usage:

// Setting values of various data types
Cookies.set('string', 'value');
Cookies.set('number', 123);
Cookies.set('array', [1, 2, 3]);
Cookies.set('object', { hello: 'world' });

// Chaining sets together
Cookies.set('string', 'value').set('number', 123);

// Setting cookies with additional options
Cookies.set('string', 'value', { domain: 'www.example.com', secure: true });

// Setting cookies with expiration values
Cookies.set('string', 'value', { expires: 600 }); // Expires in 10 minutes
Cookies.set('string', 'value', { expires: '01-01-2012' });
Cookies.set('string', 'value', { expires: new Date(2012, 0, 1) });

// Using the alias
Cookies('array', [1, 2, 3], { secure: true });

Cookies.get(key)

Alias: Cookies(key)

Retrieves the cookie value of the most locally scoped cookie with the specified key. If the cookie value is a JSON encoded string, the parsed JSON value will be returned.

Arguments:

key: A string value of a cookie key

Returns:

A JSON parsed representation of the cookie value, if it can be parsed, otherwise the string value of the cookie.

Example Usage:

// First set some cookies
Cookies.set('string', 'value');
Cookies.set('number', 123);
Cookies.set('object', { hello: 'world' });

// Get the cookie values (as its original data type)
Cookies.get('string'); // "value"
Cookies.get('number'); // 123
Cookies.get('object'); // { hello: 'world' }

// Using the alias
Cookies('string'); // "value"

Cookies.expire(key [, options])

Alias: Cookies(key, undefined [, options])

Expires a cookie, removing it from the document.

Arguments:

key: A string value of the cookie key to expire
options: An object containing additional parameters about the cookie (discussed below)

Returns:

The Cookies object is returned to support chaining.

The 'options' Object:

path: A string value of the path of the cookie
domain: A string value of the domain of the cookie

If any property is left undefined, the browser's default value will be used instead. A default value for any property may be set in the Cookies.defaults object.

Example Usage:

// First set a cookie and get its value
Cookies.set('string', 'value').get('string'); // "value"

// Expire the cookie and try to get its value
Cookies.expire('string').get('string'); // undefined

// Using the alias instead
Cookies('string', undefined);

Properties

Cookies.enabled

A boolean value of whether or not the browser has cookies enabled.

Example Usage:

if (Cookies.enabled) {
    Cookies.set('key', 'value');
}

Cookies.defaults

An object representing default options to be used when setting and expiring cookie values. Cookies.defaults supports the following properties:

path: A string value of the path of the cookie
domain: A string value of the domain of the cookie
expires: A number (of seconds), a date parsable string, or a Date object of when the cookie will expire
secure: A boolean value of whether or not the cookie should only be available over SSL

By default, only Cookies.defaults.path is set to '/', all other properties are undefined. If any property is left undefined, the browser's default value will be used instead.

Example Usage:

Cookies.defaults = {
    path: '/',
    secure: true
};

Cookies.set('key', 'value'); // Will be secure and have a path of '/'
Cookies.expire('key'); // Will expire the cookie with a path of '/'

Change Log

0.1.5

• CommonJS-support.

0.1.4

• Fixed a bug where setting a cookie's secure value tofalse caused the Cookies.defaults.secure value to be used instead.

0.1.3

• Added aliases for Cookies.set and Cookies.expire.

0.1.2

• Set Cookies.defaults.path to '/'.
• Replaced escape and unescape function calls with encodeURIComponent and decodeURIComponent, because the former are deprecated.
• Cookie keys are now URI encoded in addition to cookie values.

0.1.1

• Cross browser fixes.

0.1.0

• Initial commit.