Cookie getMaxAge

Question

I can't retrieve cookie maxage it always returns -1

Creating cookie:

Cookie securityCookie = new Cookie("sec", "somevalue");
securityCookie.setMaxAge(EXPIRATION_TIME);

Retrieve cookie:

Cookie[] cookies = request.getCookies();
if (cookies != null) {
    for(int i=0; i<cookies.length; i++) {
        Cookie cookie = cookies[i];
        if ("sec".equals(cookie.getName())){
            int age = cookie.getMaxAge();
        }
    }
}

i am always getting age = -1

also when i check in firefox cookie expiration i see strange date.

Thx

Answer 1

When a browser sends a cookie back to the origin server, it doesn't include any age. So it is logical that your "retrieve" code above does not receive a max age: it is not included in the request.

When the cookie is received from the server, the browser uses the max age parameter to determine how long the cookie should be kept; the age is never communicated back to the server, an expired cookie is simply discarded. When processing a request, if you want to renew the age of the cookie, reinclude the cookie in the response.

Also see the section "Sending Cookies to the Origin Server" in the RFC.

Answer 2

The API says that -1 means until browser is running:

Returns the maximum age of the cookie, specified in seconds, By default, -1 indicating the cookie will persist until browser shutdown

What is the value of EXPIRATION_TIME constant?