Cookies [Paperback]

Simon St. Laurent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998

Suppose you had the only cookies in town? That's what this book gives you. Cookies is the only book to focus on this important programming tool that helps users keep track of where they are in a Web site. This book gives developers and content providers every crumb of information they need about cookies!

Cookies' Unique Ingredients:
-- Details that developers need to create cookies with maximum functionality
-- Tools, techniques, and standards for both Netscape and Explorer
-- Cookies and Java -- when, how, and whether to use them
-- Help in anticipating and meeting new standards
-- Simulated cookies for browsers that can't handle or refuse cookies
-- Alternatives to cookies, including Open Profiling Standard, digital signatures, and proposed security models
-- Site architecture considerations
-- Facilitating electronic commerce with cookies
-- Cookies, responsibility, and privacy

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Yes, a complete book on web cookies, those much vilified small chunks of data in our preference files that make it possible for us to go shopping on the web and to reenter password-protected sites without hassle and to track our information preferences. Even those of us who don't like the idea of web managers storing code on our hard drives acknowledge that these little chunks of data are becoming more important. St. Laurent covers a lot: cookie myths; cookie management; client and server side cookie scripting; cookies and the Common Gateway Interface with Perl, Java, and JavaScript; cookies and active server pages; and future changes to cookie architecture. Recommended for all collections serving site managers.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

Inside the Web's most misunderstood programming tool. Cookies have been praised as a powerful convenience-and damned as Big Brother's way of keeping intrusively close track of user behavior. Initially introduced in Netscape 1.1 as a way for developers to store tiny amounts of information on client computers, they have spread from CGI programming to JavaScripting, and are an important part of the toolbox for Microsoft Active Server Pages, Java servlets, and Netscape LiveWire development. They deserve a guide of their own, and here it is-complete with coverage of the Internet Engineering Task Force's controversial RFC 2109, which includes both a specification for cookie contents (endorsing and extending the existing Netscape standard) and rules covering the ways servers and browsers handle cookies. Savvy Web developers are realizing that cookie management is a critical task, with serious implications for Web site architecture. While not a complete solution to Web needs, cookies are more useful than many people know. Let Simon St. Laurent give you the full picture of how cookies fit into your Web tooklit and how they work with other tools: The truth about cookies' power to invade privacy, spread viruses, and breach security; Details to help you create cookies with maximum functionality, including client-side cookie scripting and server-side cookie applications; Step-by-step instructions on delivering content tailored to individual users; insights into the latest improvements to the cookie standard and new specifications from Microsoft and Netscape/Verisign, including the Open Profiling Standard; Sample cookie files and code; Advice on blending cookies and Java; Better ways to track site usage; simulated cookies for browsers that can't handle them; Alternative routes when users hostile to cookies have turned them off; the lowdown on higher=level user verification methods, such as digital signatures and encryption; site architecture considerations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Computing Mcgraw-Hill (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070504989
• ISBN-13: 978-0070504981
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon St. Laurent is an Editor with O'Reilly and Associates. Prior to that, he'd been a web developer, network administrator, computer book author, and XML troublemaker. He lives in Dryden, NY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BOOK on cookies, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cookies (Paperback)

Well if you want to be able to make a shopping cart, make a mission statement compiler or just about anything else with cookies THIS IS THE BOOK. Even if you don't have mush programming experience this book would be good for you. This is definitely a good book for all web developers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book saved the day., November 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cookies (Paperback)

This is a great book! My only problem is it went from the basics to advanced, totaly skipping the imtermediate levels of cookies. This book filled in all the gaps in the JavaScript Bible and THEN some! I recommend it to any one that developes web sites!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's great that there's at least one book on the subject!, September 2, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cookies (Paperback)

This book is very well written with source code included. The only thing lacking is an electronic source. I spent many hours combined debugging my code since there is no media with the book. It is fantastic however. A definite must for developing complex cookie based solutions.