UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 6 V6 Modifications V6 Mod Ideas Clear cookies

I've noticed on a few different boards (UBB is the last one I saw) they sometimes have a link, usually in their FAQ, that says:

[:"red"]Clearing Cookies
If you ever experience login problems, you may have a problem with the cookies that have been set in your browser. If this happens, you can try clearing all cookies set on this message board by clicking {link here}.[/]

It looks like it's javascript. Has anyone made one like this for UBBT? If it helps, I believe you can clear a cookie by setting the same exact cookie only for a time earlier than the present time. So it's read by the computer, rewrites the current good cookie, but it is set to a time earlier than the current time -- the computer then reads it as already expired and the cookie is dropped.

This would be helpful. The only other alternative is to use IE which clears all of your cookies. That can be a real hazard when you've forgotten your password at various places on the 'Net.

That's exactly why I would like the link. I have to tell a dozen people a day to delete their cookies, and I hate doing that, since IE deletes all of the cookies. Most of the people I tell this to aren't computer wise enough to use a cookie deleting program and just delete specific cookies.

I have this niffty little program that I just love. It costs like $15.00 but is well worth it. it is called cookiepal there is like a 30 day demo for it also.

here is the link to it

http://www.kburra.com

A site I have used is cookiesweeper.com
It will show you all the cookies on your system and selectively delete them.
Something to help diagnose cookie problems would be helpful. Now the only answer for problems is delete your cookie and try again.

Doesnt the [:"red"] Logout [/] link clear your cookies?

You'd think it would!

If I clear all my cookies and log in, the software places these cookies:

[:"blue"]Name: w3t_language
Information: english
Host: www.mydomain.com
Path: /
Server Secure: no
Expires: Sunday, September 29, 2002 12:36:50

Name: w3t_myid
Information: 16
Host: www.mydomain.com
Path: /
Server Secure: no
Expires: Sunday, September 29, 2002 12:36:50

Name: w3t_key
Information: {lots of numbers & letters}
Host: www.mydomain.com
Path: /
Server Secure: no
Expires: Sunday, September 29, 2002 12:36:50

Name: w3t_mysess
Information: {lots of numbers and letters}
Host: www.mydomain.com
Path: /
Server Secure: no
Expires: at end of session[/]

Most of the time, when I click logout, w3t_myid, w3t_key, and w3t_mysess are removed. Sometimes they aren't. w3t_language always remains though, no matter how many times I click logout. There are times when I have to actually delete the cookie manually in order to be able to log back in. Can't be a browser thing, because it does it to me on IE6 and Netscape7 and I have lots of people from AOL that have the problem.

Clearing cookies is done the way you described.

I agree that the feature would be useful to have. It wouldn't need to be Javascript, it's just as easy (or easier) to do in PHP.

I'd suggest that cookies be cleared using both the root '/' path, and the cookie path specifed in config settings (if it's different).

It might also be useful to use both the current domain (from the HTTP request) and also the domain with the "www" stripped out, if present, since that's a common problem. There are a couple of other threads discussing this.

One issue is that Infopop has this peculiar fascination with forcing everyone to comply to their interpretation of COPPA, so they would probably not want people to easily delete the cookie(s) used for storing DOB. But that's not a factor if someone here writes the mod.

I'm not sure but I think that the only way a cookie set with the domain subdomain.mydomain.com or any other subdomains can be removed is if the visitor is using that subdomain at the time of removal. You can always set the top level domain "mydomain.com" at any point.

Clearing cookies for the current domain/subdomain used by the visitor would be easy to do. I'll put this on my list of things to do. I'll also make it skip over the coppa cookie (optionally).

visitor is using that subdomain at the time of removal

Does that restriction still apply if the "subdomain" is "www"? I can't remember. Is so, you could deal with it by redirecting to a "www" script to clear the cookies, although that makes things more complicated.

Yes, actually www. would be included as far as subdomains go. A cookie set with mydomain.com is not the same cookie when set with www.mydomain.com...

Made a little .php script to clear your cookies.

Find it here.