Cookies.js

Cookies.js is a small client-side javascript library that makes managing cookies easy.

Features

• Caches cookie values, making sequential reads faster.
• Supports AMD / CommonJS loaders.
• Cross browser.
• Lightweight.
• RFC6265 Compliant.

Browser Compatibility

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

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

Getting the Library

Direct downloads

• Minified (~1 KB gzipped)
• Unminified (~1.7 KB gzipped)

Node Package Manager

npm install cookies-js

Bower

bower install cookies-js

A Note About Encoding

RFC6265 defines a strict set of allowed characters for cookie keys and values. In order to effectively allow any character to be used in a key or value, Cookies.js will URI encode disallowed characters in their UTF-8 representation. As such, Cookies.js also expects cookie keys and values to already be URI encoded in a UTF-8 representation when it accesses cookies. Keep this in mind when working with cookies on the server side.

.NET Users

Do not use HttpUtility.UrlEncode and HttpUtility.UrlDecode on cookie keys or values. HttpUtility.UrlEncode will improperly escape space characters to '+' and lower case every escape sequence. HttpUtility.UrlDecode will improperly unescape every '+' to a space character. Instead, use System.Uri.EscapeDataString and System.Uri.UnescapeDataString.

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: A string value of the cookie value to set
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 a cookie value
Cookies.set('key', 'value');

// Chaining sets together
Cookies.set('key', 'value').set('hello', 'world');

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

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

// Using the alias
Cookies('key', 'value', { secure: true });

Cookies.get(key)

Alias: Cookies(key)

Retrieves the cookie value of the most locally scoped cookie with the specified key.

Arguments:

key: A string value of a cookie key

Returns:

The string value of the cookie.

Example Usage:

// First set a cookie
Cookies.set('key', 'value');

// Get the cookie value
Cookies.get('key'); // "value"

// Using the alias
Cookies('key'); // "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('key', 'value').get('key'); // "value"

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

// Using the alias instead
Cookies('key', 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 '/'