Cookies are read and written through ActionController#cookies.

The cookies being read are the ones received along with the request, the cookies being written will be sent out with the response. Reading a cookie does not get the cookie object itself back, just the value it holds.

Examples for writing: 

  # Sets a simple session cookie.
  cookies[:user_name] = "david"

  # Sets a cookie that expires in 1 hour.
  cookies[:login] = { :value => "XJ-122", :expires => 1.hour.from_now }

Examples for reading: 

  cookies[:user_name] # => "david"
  cookies.size        # => 2

Example for deleting: 

  cookies.delete :user_name

Please note that if you specify a :domain when setting a cookie, you must also specify the domain when deleting the cookie: 

 cookies[:key] = {
   :value => 'a yummy cookie',
   :expires => 1.year.from_now,
   :domain => 'domain.com'
 }

 cookies.delete(:key, :domain => 'domain.com')

The option symbols for setting cookies are:

  • :value - The cookie’s value or list of values (as an array).
  • :path - The path for which this cookie applies. Defaults to the root of the application.
  • :domain - The domain for which this cookie applies.
  • :expires - The time at which this cookie expires, as a Time object.
  • :secure - Whether this cookie is a only transmitted to HTTPS servers. Default is false.
  • :httponly - Whether this cookie is accessible via scripting or only HTTP. Defaults to false.
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July 30, 2008
8 thanks

Writing and reading a cookie in the same request.

Note that when setting the value of a cookie, the new value won’t be accessible until the next page request. In this way, the cookies hash cannot be used in the same manner as the session hash.

For example:

# given that cookies[:temporary_data] was set to 'foo' in the previous request
cookies[:temporary_data] = 'bar'
p cookies[:temporary_data] # => 'foo'
June 3, 2009
3 thanks

Writing and reading a cookie in the same request.

As of 0349278f3da9f7f532330cf295eed35ede3bae66 cookie updates will persist in the current request.