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Wininet and Cookies

Keywords: 	  Cookies

Question:

How does the WinInet Extender deal with cookies? I am trying to automate data downloads from a website that requires several layers of user interaction. It appears that the servers are using a cookie to hold some information when accessed via a web browser. If I run a script that does an iBegin, iHostConnect, iHostInit, and iHostOpen sequence (standard stuff) I am able to talk to the web server and retrieve the next page properly. The script then uses several different URLOpen commands, using the same iBegin handle, to progress through a series of other pages, including an HTTPS url. It seems like the cookie information is somehow emulated correctly as long as the connection is not broken.

However, the script eventually needs to use a different iHostConnect statement in order to connect to a secure server and POST a form. At that point the cookie information seems to be gone and I get a "HTTP 1.1 302 found" error from the server. I think that this is because of the new iHostConnect that was required to post the form.

The script is somewhat long and complicated so I am looking for some general information and guidelines without resorting to sending the entire script.

Answer:

The WinInet extender uses the Internet Explorer cookie handling mechanism.

It is enabled by default. It should work 100% the same as MSIE does.

It is possible to use the headers to send your own cookies.

Basically a cookie is just some header information that is automagically attached to all your outgoing requests and remembered on the incoming requests.

More Questions:

Thanks, that clears up how the cookie part could have been working. How about the 302 found response? My understanding is that the new Url should be returned in the "Location:" header. However I do not see this as one of the response headers shown with the iHttpHeaders command that I use following the iHttpOpen command. How do I obtain the value of response headers (such as "Location:") from within my script?

Answer:

Well if iHttpHeaders does not see it, then it is inacessable.

I have a vague idea that was handled automagically though, so if you see a 302 error there is a real problem. I'm not 100% sure on that though.


Article ID:   W14442
Filename:   Wininet and Cookies.txt
File Created: 2000:09:27:15:04:22
Last Updated: 2000:09:27:15:04:22