Prentice Hall and Sun Microsystems. Personal use only; do not redistribute.

8.3 The Servlet Cookie API

185

public String getPath()

public void setPath(String path)

These methods get or set the path to which the cookie applies. If you don't 

specify a path, the browser returns the cookie only to URLs in or below 

the directory containing the page that sent the cookie. For example, if 

the server sent the cookie from 

http://ecommerce.site.com/toys/ 

specials.html

, the browser would send the cookie back when connect 

ing to 

http://ecommerce.site.com/toys/bikes/beginners.html

, 

but not to 

http://ecommerce.site.com/cds/classical.html

. The 

setPath

 method can be used to specify something more general. For 

example, 

someCookie.setPath("/")

 specifies that all pages on the

server should receive the cookie. The path specified must include the 

current page; that is, you may specify a more general path than the 

default, but not a more specific one. So, for example, a servlet at 

http://host/store/cust service/request

 could specify a path of 

/store/

 (since 

/store/

 includes 

/store/cust service/

) but not a 

path of 

/store/cust service/returns/

 (since this directory does not 

include 

/store/cust service/

).

public boolean getSecure()

public void setSecure(boolean secureFlag)

This pair of methods gets or sets the boolean value indicating whether 

the cookie should only be sent over encrypted (i.e., SSL) connections. 

The default is 

false

; the cookie should apply to all connections.

public String getValue()

public void setValue(String cookieValue)

The 

getValue

 method looks up the value associated with the cookie; 

the 

setValue

 method specifies it. Again, the name and the value are 

the two parts of a cookie that you almost always care about, although in 

a few cases, a name is used as a boolean flag and its value is ignored (i.e., 

the existence of a cookie with the designated name is all that matters). 

public int getVersion()

public void setVersion(int version)

These methods get/set the cookie protocol version the cookie complies 

with. Version 0, the default, follows the original Netscape specification 

(http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html

). 

Version 1, not yet widely supported, adheres to RFC 2109 (retrieve 

RFCs from the archive sites listed at 

http://www.rfc editor.org/

).

Second edition of this book: www.coreservlets.com; Sequel: www.moreservlets.com.

Servlet and JSP training courses by book's author: courses.coreservlets.com.