1HTTP::CookieMonster(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentationHTTP::CookieMonster(3)
2
6 HTTP::CookieMonster - Easy read/write access to your jar of
7 HTTP::Cookies
8
10 version 0.09
11
13 # Use the functional interface for quick read-only access
14 use HTTP::CookieMonster qw( cookies );
15 use WWW::Mechanize;
16 my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new;
18 my $url = 'http://www.nytimes.com';
19 $mech->get( $url );
20 my @cookies = cookies( $mech->cookie_jar );
22 my $cookie = cookies( $mech->cookie_jar, 'RMID' );
23 print $cookie->val;
24 # Use the OO interface for read/write access
26 use HTTP::CookieMonster;
28 my $monster = HTTP::CookieMonster->new( $mech->cookie_jar );
30 my $cookie = $monster->get_cookie('RMID');
31 print $cookie->val;
32 $cookie->val('random stuff');
34 $monster->set_cookie( $cookie );
35 # now fetch page using mangled cookie
37 $mech->get( $url );
38
40 This module was created because messing around with HTTP::Cookies is
41 non-trivial. HTTP::Cookies a very useful module, but using it is not
42 always as easy and clean as it could be. For instance, if you want to
43 find a particular cookie, you can't just ask for it by name. Instead,
44 you have to use a callback:
45 $cookie_jar->scan( \&callback )
47 The callback will be invoked with 11 positional parameters:
49 0 version
51 1 key
52 2 val
53 3 path
54 4 domain
55 5 port
56 6 path_spec
57 7 secure
58 8 expires
59 9 discard
60 10 hash
61 That's a lot to remember and it doesn't make for very readable code.
63 Now, let's say you want to save or update a cookie. Now you're back to
65 the many positional params yet again:
66 $cookie_jar->set_cookie( $version, $key, $val, $path, $domain, $port, $path_spec, $secure, $maxage, $discard, \%rest )
68 Also not readable. Unless you have an amazing memory, you may find
70 yourself checking the docs regularly to see if you did, in fact, get
71 all those params in the correct order etc.
72 HTTP::CookieMonster gives you a simple interface for getting and
74 setting cookies. You can fetch an ARRAY of all your cookies:
75 my @all_cookies = $monster->all_cookies;
77 foreach my $cookie ( @all_cookies ) {
78 print $cookie->key;
79 print $cookie->val;
80 print $cookie->secure;
81 print $cookie->domain;
82 # etc
83 }
84 Or, if you know for a fact exactly what will be in your cookie jar, you
86 can fetch a cookie by name.
87 my $cookie = $monster->get_cookie( 'plack_session' );
89 This gives you fast access to a cookie without a callback, iterating
91 over a list etc. It's good for quick hacks and you can dump the cookie
92 quite easily to inspect its contents in a highly readable way:
93 use Data::Printer;
95 p $cookie;
96 If you want to mangle the cookie before the next request, that's easy
98 too.
99 $cookie->val('woohoo');
101 $monster->set_cookie( $cookie );
102 $mech->get( $url );
103 Or, add an entirely new cookie to the jar:
105 use HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie;
107 my $cookie = HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie->new(
108 key => 'cookie-name',
109 val => 'cookie-val',
110 path => '/',
111 domain => '.somedomain.org',
112 path_spec => 1,
113 secure => 0,
114 expires => 1376081877
115 );
116 $monster->set_cookie( $cookie );
118 $mech->get( $url );
119 new
121 new() takes just one required parameter, which is cookie_jar, a valid
122 HTTP::Cookies object.
123 my $monster = HTTP::CookieMonster->new( $mech->cookie_jar );
125 cookie_jar
127 A reader which returns an HTTP::Cookies object.
128 all_cookies
130 Returns an ARRAY of all cookies in the cookie jar, represented as
131 HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie objects.
132 my @cookies = $monster->all_cookies;
134 foreach my $cookie ( @cookies ) {
135 print $cookie->key;
136 }
137 set_cookie( $cookie )
139 Sets a cookie and updates the cookie jar. Requires a
140 HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie object.
141 my $monster = HTTP::CookieMonster->new( $mech->cookie_jar );
143 my $s = $monster->get_cookie('session');
144 $s->val('random_string');
145 $monster->set_cookie( $s );
147 # You can also add an entirely new cookie to the jar via this method
149 use HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie;
151 my $cookie = HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie->new(
152 key => 'cookie-name',
153 val => 'cookie-val',
154 path => '/',
155 domain => '.somedomain.org',
156 path_spec => 1,
157 secure => 0,
158 expires => 1376081877
159 );
160 $monster->set_cookie( $cookie );
162 delete_cookie( $cookie )
164 Deletes a cookie and updates the cookie jar. Requires a
165 HTTP::CookieMonster::Cookie object.
166 get_cookie( $name )
168 Be aware that this method may surprise you by what it returns. When
169 called in scalar context, get_cookie() returns the first cookie which
170 exactly matches the name supplied. In many cases this will be exactly
171 what you want, but that won't always be the case.
172 If you are spidering multiple web sites with the same UserAgent object,
174 be aware that you'll likely have cookies from multiple sites in your
175 cookie jar. In this case asking for get_cookie('session') in scalar
176 context may not return the cookie which you were expecting. You will
177 be safer calling get_cookie() in list context:
178 $monster = HTTP::CookieMonster->new( $mech->cookie_jar );
180 # first cookie with this name
182 my $first_session = $monster->get_cookie('session');
183 # all cookies with this name
185 my @all_sessions = $monster->get_cookie('session');
186
188 cookies
189 This function will DWIM. Here are some examples:
190 use HTTP::CookieMonster qw( cookies );
192 # get all cookies in your jar
194 my @cookies = cookies( $mech->cookie_jar );
195 # get all cookies of a certain name/key
197 my @session_cookies = cookies( $mech->cookie_jar, 'session_cookie_name' );
198 # get the first cookie of a certain name/key
200 my $first_session_cookie = cookies( $mech->cookie_jar, 'session_cookie_name' );
201
203 Olaf Alders <olaf@wundercounter.com>
204
206 This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Olaf Alders.
207 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
209 the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
210perl v5.28.1 2014-11-24 HTTP::CookieMonster(3)